Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup 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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the final over to complete a thrilling win over Bangladesh and keep their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the final six bowls.

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

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four match 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 setback since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

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

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

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition regret it.

She scored a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the final moment.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the last over, kept hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was significantly less.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203 total target would have been considerably smaller.

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a tough opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was missed further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with teammates being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the latter was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this tournament and boast the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are overall moving in the right direction – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring issue which requires attention.