Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last over to achieve a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a below-par target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the last six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She achieved a debut international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and building an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back in the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were later brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the last two innings segments, with only 12 additional runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed merely three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, held her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting effort. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the chase was much lower.

However, Bangladesh lacked aggression from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves excessive to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been considerably smaller.

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a difficult chance while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped once more on 55 and 63, the last attempt going straight to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally heading in the proper way – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a glaring concern which demands improvement.