Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to complete a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and preserve their slim chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a dramatic success for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a poor fielding performance.

They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu failed to take advantage, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

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

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket 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 merely 12 additional runs necessary.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, maintained hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was much lower.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203 total goal would have been considerably lower.

It required them three efforts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a challenging chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped again on 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance flying right to Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a failed stumping and a failed run-out, while the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves following an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 at this competition and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent concern which needs attention.