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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last over to seal a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and keep their narrow hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting victory for the Lankan team.

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

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a first international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the last two overs, with just 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the very end.

In the end, it was a game of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, kept her composure. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting display. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the start, accumulating runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the field, that 203-run objective would have been substantially less.

It required them three attempts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to hold a difficult chance while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with batting partners getting out near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties following an physical problem to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this World Cup and have the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally moving in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding performance is a prominent concern which needs attention.