Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, 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

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and keep their slim aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the last six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

She registered a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with merely 12 additional runs required.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a several of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the final over, held hers. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was much lower.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203 total objective would have been significantly smaller.

It required them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a tough opportunity while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

Perera was missed once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling straight to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this competition and display the lowest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically heading in the proper way – they are competing in only their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a obvious issue which needs attention.