Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes alive

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): 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 complete a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She scored a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back in the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with just 12 runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team seized the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the final over, maintained hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be many questions about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been significantly lower.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty being unable to take a tough catch while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance flying directly to Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with teammates falling around her.

Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 at this competition and boast the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are participating in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a obvious concern which requires attention.