The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the final innings segment to seal a thrilling win over Bangladesh and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth straight loss since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding display.

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

Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, maintained hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting performance. They might well have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the start, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to achieve.

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

It required them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a challenging chance behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped again on 55 and 63, the last attempt traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners falling around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this tournament and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the correct path – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent problem which demands focus.