The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to achieve a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and keep their faint hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing powerplay and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with just 12 runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of teammates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, held her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203 total target would have been significantly lower.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a difficult chance behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, although the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this tournament and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a glaring problem which needs improvement.