The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the final over to complete a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and keep their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

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

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with only 12 runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, held hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was significantly less.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

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

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a challenging chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with batting partners getting out around her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the latter was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and boast the lowest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring problem which requires attention.