Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes alive

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); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last over to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and keep their narrow hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the last six balls.

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

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth straight defeat since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a subpar fielding performance.

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

Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were later reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the final two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs required.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the death.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the last over, held her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting display. They might well have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the start, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves excessive to do.

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

It required them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped further on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance flying directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners falling beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this competition and have the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a glaring problem which needs focus.