The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their tournament hopes breathing

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); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a nail-biting win over their opponents and maintain their slim chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding performance.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the final two innings segments, with merely 12 runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed merely three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she got ready to bowl the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been substantially lower.

It required them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 and 63, the latter chance going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally heading in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent problem which needs focus.