The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 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 innings segment to seal a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and keep their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

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

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

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

Although Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the remaining two overs, with only 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team seized the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, held her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target target would have been significantly less.

It took them three attempts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a tough catch while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was missed once more on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed around her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the right direction – they are competing in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a prominent problem which demands improvement.