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

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the final over to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the remaining six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a first international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the final two overs, with merely 12 additional runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed only three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a game of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of teammates as she got ready to bowl the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been considerably less.

It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a tough opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled further on 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance going right to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling near her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this World Cup and boast the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are overall moving in the correct path – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a prominent issue which needs attention.