The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to preserve their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to seal a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the last six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding display.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44 for three.

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

It was advantage the chasing team entering the final two innings segments, with just 12 more runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of teammates as she prepared to bowl the final over, held her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203-run target objective would have been significantly less.

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty failing to hold a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying right to Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners falling near her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a obvious concern which needs focus.