Sri Lanka keeps their World Cup hopes alive with four wickets in the final against Bangladesh

Sri Lanka snatched victory from the jaws of defeat to register their maiden Women’s Cricket World Cup victory, leaving Bangladesh seven runs ahead in a nail-biting finish in Navi Mumbai on Monday.

With Bangladesh cruising and needing just nine of the final over with five wickets in hand, having collected just three runs from the penultimate over, the captain, Chamari Athapaththu, took the ball himself and turned the game on its head.

Four wickets fell in four balls as Bangladesh collapsed, losing five wickets for just two runs. Athapaththu, calm amid the storm, finished with career-best figures of four for 42.

The drama started when Rabeya Khan got his leg trapped after the first ball, followed by a run-out on the next delivery. Then Bangladesh’s hopes sank when their captain, Nigar Sultana, danced around the track and discovered they had been lying in wait for a long time. When Marufa Akter was assessed next ball, Athapaththu had conjured the unthinkable by defending nine with a single run conceded in the over.

“We handled the pressure well. We knew teams could crumble if we played deep into the match,” Athapaththu said. “It wasn’t perfect, the batting collapsed and the dropped catches hurt us, but luck smiled on us today.”

For once, fortune was in Sri Lanka’s favor, whose campaign was marred by rain, missed opportunities and batting failures. Hasini Perera, who hit her maiden one-day international half-century, made 85 off 99 balls, peppered with 13 fours and a six. She was the backbone of Sri Lanka’s 202 as she reached the milestone of 1,000 runs in ODIs. A 74-run partnership with Nilakshika de Silva gave Sri Lanka a solid launching pad, before another collapse saw six wickets fall for 28 runs.

Still, the Sri Lankans held their nerve to seal the victory and climb to sixth place in the standings. On four points they are level with New Zealand and India, although results will be needed to go in their favor to clinch the final spot in the semi-finals. Australia, South Africa and England have already booked their places in the last four.

“We kept losing wickets at crucial times,” said Sultana, the Bangladesh captain whose battles were in vain as her side was eliminated. “I tried to take the pressure off with a boundary but it just didn’t work.”