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

ICC Women's 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

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping win over their opponents and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting victory for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – moves them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth successive setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She registered a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team entering the final two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away only three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the last over, kept her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the required total was much lower.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their catches in the field, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially lower.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the last attempt flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with partners getting out beside her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an fitness issue to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 at this tournament and display the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically moving in the right direction – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a prominent concern which demands focus.