The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding display.

They offered reprieves to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a first international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the last two overs, with merely 12 more runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the required total was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked purpose from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203 total target would have been substantially smaller.

It needed them three efforts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a challenging chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped further on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt traveling directly to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners falling near her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, even though the second one was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the worst catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are overall moving in the right direction – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding performance is a glaring concern which requires improvement.