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

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 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 emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a thrilling triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

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

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – moves them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition regret it.

She scored a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the remaining two overs, with only 12 additional runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, held her nerve. The opposition did not.

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

Yet, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

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

It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a challenging catch behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a potential 27 at this competition and have the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are typically heading in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a prominent issue which demands attention.