Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth straight loss since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They offered reprieves to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were subsequently diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the last two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the death.

Finally, it was a match of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the required total was much lower.

However, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been significantly less.

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to hold a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped further on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed around her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, while the latter was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves after an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a potential 27 at this tournament and display the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are participating in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring problem which needs focus.