Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth successive setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a subpar fielding performance.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She scored a debut international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the last two overs, with only 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of teammates as she got ready to bowl the final over, held her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little intent from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their opportunities in the field, that 203 total target would have been substantially less.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a difficult chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled again on 55 runs and 63 runs, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates falling around her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was also a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and display the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding is a prominent concern which needs focus.