Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their 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): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and keep their faint chances 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 more runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu could not make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

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

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and allowed only three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting display. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the start, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves excessive to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been substantially lower.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a difficult catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was missed again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners falling near her.

Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this tournament and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall heading in the right direction – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a prominent issue which needs focus.