Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the final two bowling phases, with only 12 runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, kept her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh lacked aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

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

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a tough opportunity behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped further on 55 and 63, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a potential 27 at this competition and boast the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a glaring problem which needs attention.