The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the final over to seal a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the final six balls.

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

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight defeat since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to make it count, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She registered a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their score, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, held her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting display. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the chase was much lower.

Yet, the batting side lacked intent from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the field, that 203 total objective would have been substantially less.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to hold a tough catch while keeping to send back Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped again on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are far from a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the worst catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically heading in the correct path – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding is a obvious issue which needs focus.