Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, 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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the last six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them tied on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a debut international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

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

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

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the last over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little intent from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been significantly smaller.

It required them three efforts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a tough catch behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

Perera was missed once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, while the latter was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this World Cup and display the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are typically heading in the right direction – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent issue which needs improvement.