Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the final over to complete a nail-biting win over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a below-par target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the final six bowls.

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

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

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

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She registered a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with merely 12 runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, held hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been considerably less.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a challenging catch while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with partners getting out beside her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a failed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent issue which requires focus.