Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 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 claimed four wickets in the final over to seal a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling win for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

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

Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She achieved a debut international fifty, making 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing initial phase and they were later reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

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

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of teammates as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, kept her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting performance. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been significantly lower.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to take a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

The batter was missed further on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with teammates falling beside her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are competing in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a glaring problem which requires focus.