Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a thrilling win over their opponents and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding performance.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition pay.

She scored a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the final two overs, with only 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of teammates as she set herself to deliver the final over, kept her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was significantly less.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target goal would have been substantially smaller.

It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a tough chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled again on 55 and 63, the final opportunity traveling straight to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with teammates being dismissed beside her.

Later in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a possible 27 at this World Cup and boast the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are generally heading in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious concern which needs focus.