The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi 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); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the last six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a poor fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was spilled three times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She registered a first international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the last two overs, with merely 12 runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded only three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, kept her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting performance. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side lacked intent from the start, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been substantially smaller.

It required them three attempts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a tough catch while keeping to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was missed further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed near her.

Later in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and display the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally moving in the correct path – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent concern which requires improvement.