Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last over to achieve a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the final two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the last over, held her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little purpose from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203-run goal would have been significantly lower.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a challenging chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling around her.

Later in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a potential 27 at this World Cup and have the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent issue which requires focus.