Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini 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 crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their slim aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth straight setback since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

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

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team entering the final two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the final moment.

In the end, it was a game of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side lacked purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target goal would have been substantially lower.

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty failing to grab a tough chance behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled further on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with teammates getting out near her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a potential 27 at this World Cup and have the worst catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally heading in the right direction – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent concern which requires attention.