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

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and keep their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

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

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

She registered a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back in the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the death.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the last over, held her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the required total was much lower.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the start, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been considerably lower.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a tough catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, although the second one was a little regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this World Cup and display the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are overall moving in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent problem which needs improvement.