The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 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

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the decisive innings segment to complete a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back in the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the final two overs, with only 12 runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away merely three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of teammates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, held hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203 total target would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty being unable to hold a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 at this competition and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are typically heading in the correct path – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent issue which requires focus.