Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the last six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu failed to capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the last two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting effort. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the target was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves excessive to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially smaller.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a difficult chance behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the last attempt traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with teammates getting out beside her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and display the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically heading in the correct path – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a glaring concern which demands focus.