Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): 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

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a nail-biting win over their opponents and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Needing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

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

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a maiden international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the final two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the last over, held her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was much lower.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves too much to do.

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

It required them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a difficult catch behind the stumps to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance flying right to Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with partners getting out beside her.

Later in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 at this World Cup and display the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a glaring issue which demands improvement.