Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the decisive innings segment to complete a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the last six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth successive setback since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a disappointing fielding performance.

They gifted lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She scored a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two overs, with only 12 more runs needed.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves too much to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total target would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty failing to grab a difficult catch while keeping to remove Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped further on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners getting out beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the latter was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the keeping duties due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 at this tournament and have the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the proper way – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding performance is a glaring concern which needs improvement.