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): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive over to achieve a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and keep their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Needing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the final six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two innings segments, with only 12 more runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, held her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the target was significantly less.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked aggression from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been substantially less.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a challenging chance as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped further on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying directly to Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with teammates falling near her.

Later in the innings, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this tournament and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding is a prominent problem which demands improvement.