Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last over to achieve a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and keep their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

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

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She registered a debut international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the last two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerves. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and ultimately making themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their opportunities in the field, that 203 total goal would have been substantially smaller.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a difficult chance behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped again on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling directly to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out near her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a possible 27 at this World Cup and have the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are typically heading in the right direction – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring problem which needs attention.