The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini 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

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and maintain their faint chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for the Lankan team.

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

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a disappointing fielding effort.

They provided second chances to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a first international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

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

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

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the last two bowling phases, with just 12 runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of teammates as she prepared to deliver the last over, held her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting effort. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the target was much lower.

However, the batting side showed little intent from the start, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been considerably smaller.

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with partners getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 at this World Cup and boast the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a prominent concern which requires attention.