Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive over to seal a thrilling win over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the last six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – moves them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a disappointing fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

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

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were later brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the last two bowling phases, with only 12 runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a several of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, held her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been significantly lower.

It took them three attempts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners falling near her.

Later in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 opportunities at this tournament and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally heading in the correct path – they are participating in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a obvious issue which requires improvement.