Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): 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 win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the decisive over to complete a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and keep their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them equal on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

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

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their score, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the remaining two overs, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, held her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203-run target goal would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a difficult chance behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped again on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a little unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 at this World Cup and have the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are typically moving in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring problem which demands focus.