Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to keep their campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 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 margin

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – moves them tied on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding effort.

They offered reprieves to Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the last two overs, with only 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded merely three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the final over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side showed little aggression from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their opportunities in the field, that 203-run target goal would have been considerably lower.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to take a tough chance as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed around her.

Subsequently in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this tournament and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically moving in the proper way – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent problem which needs improvement.