Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the decisive over to seal a thrilling victory over their opponents and preserve their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

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

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them level on four points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She registered a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the last two innings segments, with just 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

In the end, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of teammates as she set herself to bowl the final over, held hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from the start, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been significantly smaller.

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling right to Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with partners falling around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the latter was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically moving in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a glaring problem which demands focus.