The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's 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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the final over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

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

Although Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding display.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the final two bowling phases, with just 12 runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded only three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of teammates as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, kept her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203 total goal would have been significantly less.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty failing to hold a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to remove Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity traveling straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with teammates falling around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and have the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are typically moving in the proper way – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious concern which demands focus.