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

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over their opponents and preserve their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition suffer.

She achieved a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty restored their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the last two bowling phases, with only 12 additional runs required.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the very end.

In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the final over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the start, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves too much to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been substantially lower.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a tough catch behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance going directly to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with teammates falling near her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the second one was a little regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this competition and display the worst catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the right direction – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding performance is a obvious concern which needs attention.