The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to complete a thrilling win over their opponents and maintain their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a below-par score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the last six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight setback since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu failed to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing powerplay and they were subsequently diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the final two overs, with only 12 runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of teammates as she prepared to bowl the final over, maintained hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the field, that 203 total objective would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty failing to hold a difficult chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was missed further on 55 and 63, the latter chance going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed around her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, 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 due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this tournament and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall heading in the right direction – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent issue which needs focus.