Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last over to complete a thrilling win over Bangladesh and maintain their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the final six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She registered a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their score, 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 entering the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, held her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh showed little aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been substantially less.

It needed them three efforts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a challenging chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates falling beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a failed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and have the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally heading in the proper way – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent issue which needs attention.