Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to complete a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – moves them level on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She achieved a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team entering the remaining two innings segments, with only 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the final over, held her composure. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting display. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203-run goal would have been substantially smaller.

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a difficult opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was missed once more on 55 and 63, the latter chance going directly to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners falling around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this tournament and display the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally moving in the correct path – they are playing in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent concern which requires attention.