Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to keep their campaign ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to complete a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the final six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

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

While the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They provided second chances to Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She registered a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little purpose from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target would have been significantly smaller.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a challenging chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed again on 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed around her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, although the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this tournament and boast the lowest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a prominent issue which needs attention.