The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a thrilling win over Bangladesh and keep their slim chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding performance.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu failed to capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a debut international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

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

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of teammates as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, kept hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203-run target would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three efforts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a tough catch while keeping to send back Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled further on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt going straight to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this competition and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are participating in only their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a prominent problem which demands attention.