Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and maintain their narrow chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Needing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight loss since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They gifted lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She scored a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

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

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the win at the death.

In the end, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the last over, maintained hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting display. They could easily have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was much lower.

However, Bangladesh lacked intent from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to do.

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

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a difficult opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed further on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this tournament and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring issue which demands attention.