The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to complete a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six balls.

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

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a poor fielding performance.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She achieved a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

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

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed just three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a few of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the last over, maintained her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting display. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was much lower.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little aggression from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been substantially less.

It took them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a tough catch while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance flying directly to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are overall moving in the right direction – they are competing in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious concern which needs attention.