Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket 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); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their faint hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the final six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a poor fielding effort.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She registered a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the last two bowling phases, with only 12 additional runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, maintained hers. The opposition did not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was significantly less.

However, the batting side showed little aggression from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

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

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to hold a difficult catch behind the stumps to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity traveling directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates falling beside her.

Later in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this World Cup and boast the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a obvious problem which needs attention.