The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their campaign alive
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their decisive last tournament encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and keep their slim chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Needing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.
However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting win for Sri Lanka.
The win – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them level on four points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.
Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.
They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
While Athapaththu could not capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition regret it.
She achieved a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down 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 afterwards diminished to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.
It was advantage Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs required.
However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the very end.
Bangladesh are unable to keep calm - and catches
Finally, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a few of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the last over, held hers. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting effort. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the target was much lower.
However, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves too much to accomplish.
But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been significantly lower.
It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a tough chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was spilled further on 55 and 63, the last attempt flying directly to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with partners being dismissed around her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a failed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this tournament and have the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are typically moving in the right direction – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring concern which needs focus.
