Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to complete a thrilling win over Bangladesh and maintain their slim hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a attainable target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth straight loss since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu could not capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.

She scored a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back into the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over causing a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the last two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the win at the final moment.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, held hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting effort. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little purpose from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target objective would have been significantly less.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to grab a challenging chance as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled further on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, even though the latter was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this competition and display the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally heading in the right direction – they are participating in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a obvious concern which requires focus.