The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

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): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and keep their faint hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu failed to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the last two overs, with merely 12 runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the required total was much lower.

However, the batting side showed little purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the field, that 203-run objective would have been substantially less.

It required them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a difficult catch as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled further on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates getting out beside her.

Later in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are overall moving in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a glaring issue which demands attention.