Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to keep their tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last over to complete a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and maintain their faint hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine runs from the final six deliveries.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling win for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth successive setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

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

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, held hers. Bangladesh could not.

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

Yet, the batting side lacked purpose from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been considerably lower.

It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to hold a challenging chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance going right to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, while the second one was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and display the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious problem which requires focus.