The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini 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

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their slim chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the last six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She registered a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the last two overs, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the very end.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the start, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203-run target goal would have been considerably smaller.

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a challenging catch while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the last attempt flying right to Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates falling near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this World Cup and have the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally moving in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a prominent problem which demands improvement.