The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their campaign 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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the decisive over to achieve a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and keep their faint hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the remaining six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

She scored a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the remaining two overs, with just 12 runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of teammates as she got ready to bowl the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their catches in the field, that 203-run target would have been considerably less.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty being unable to hold a tough opportunity while keeping to send back Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed further on 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with teammates falling beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and have the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are overall heading in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a glaring issue which requires improvement.