The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side 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): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive over to complete a thrilling win over Bangladesh and keep their narrow chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Needing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the last six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

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

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition pay.

She scored a first international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over causing a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two overs, with just 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, held hers. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves excessive to do.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been significantly lower.

It required them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to grab a tough catch while keeping to remove Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on 55 and 63, the latter chance traveling straight to Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with partners getting out beside her.

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

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this World Cup and have the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are playing in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious concern which demands focus.