The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to complete a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

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

While Athapaththu was unable to make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She registered a first international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the remaining two innings segments, with only 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the death.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the final over, held hers. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting display. They might well have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the required total was significantly less.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to achieve.

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

It required them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a difficult opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the last attempt flying straight to Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with teammates falling near her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are overall heading in the proper way – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent concern which requires focus.