The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a poor fielding performance.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

She achieved a maiden international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were subsequently reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the remaining two overs, with just 12 runs required.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of teammates as she prepared to deliver the final over, held hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203 total goal would have been significantly lower.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a tough opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 at this competition and display the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the proper way – they are competing in only their second ODI World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a obvious problem which demands improvement.