Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and maintain their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the last six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling win for the Lankan team.

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

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a subpar fielding effort.

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

Although Athapaththu failed to capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back in the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

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

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the last over, held her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a early batting collapse, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target would have been considerably lower.

It took them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance flying directly to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, although the second one was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are typically moving in the right direction – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring issue which demands attention.