Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to preserve their campaign ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She registered a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the last two bowling phases, with just 12 more runs needed.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the win at the final moment.

In the end, it was a game of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of teammates as she set herself to bowl the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the target was much lower.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been significantly lower.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a challenging opportunity while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped further on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves after an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a glaring issue which demands attention.