The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the final six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth straight setback since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu was unable to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She scored a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back in the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with just 12 runs necessary.

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

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting display. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was much lower.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a challenging chance while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped again on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity traveling right to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates getting out beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was additionally a failed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties due to an injury to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and have the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding performance is a obvious concern which needs focus.