Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the final over to complete a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and preserve their faint chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling victory for Sri Lanka.

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

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive setback since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.

She achieved a debut international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she prepared to deliver the last over, kept hers. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked intent from the start, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves overwhelming to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

Perera was missed further on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates falling near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this tournament and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally moving in the right direction – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring problem which requires attention.