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

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the decisive over to complete a thrilling win over Bangladesh and keep their slim hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a poor fielding display.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the last two overs, with just 12 runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the last over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was much lower.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the start, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and ultimately making themselves excessive to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been considerably less.

It required them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a tough catch behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was missed again on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with teammates falling near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves after an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 at this tournament and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are playing in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent concern which requires focus.