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

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): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to seal a heart-stopping win over their opponents and maintain their faint chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them level on four match points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding display.

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

Even though Athapaththu failed to capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the remaining two overs, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed only three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the final over, maintained hers. The opposition did not.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was much lower.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target goal would have been considerably smaller.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to hold a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed once more on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, although the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties following an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically heading in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding standards is a prominent issue which demands focus.