Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to complete a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She registered a first international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the final two innings segments, with just 12 runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed only three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the very end.

Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, held hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked intent from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three efforts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 and 63, the latter chance going right to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with partners being dismissed near her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this competition and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically moving in the proper way – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding performance is a obvious concern which requires improvement.