The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the final innings segment to achieve a thrilling triumph over their opponents and preserve their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a below-par score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the final six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth straight setback since winning 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 taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding effort.

They provided second chances to Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the last two overs, with just 12 additional runs necessary.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, maintained her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the required total was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves too much to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been significantly smaller.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a tough catch behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

Perera was missed again on 55 and 63, the last attempt going right to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling beside her.

Later in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, although the second one was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring problem which needs focus.