Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and keep their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the last six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them level on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of teammates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, held her composure. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side showed little intent from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203-run objective would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a tough chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with batting partners getting out near her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a little unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring concern which requires focus.