The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to achieve a thrilling win over Bangladesh and keep their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the final six deliveries.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them tied on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

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

While Athapaththu could not capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a debut international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

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

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the final two overs, with just 12 runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of teammates as she got ready to bowl the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh lacked purpose from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially less.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a tough opportunity while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped further on 55 and 63, the latter chance flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with partners falling near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a failed stumping and a missed run-out, although the second one was a little unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this tournament and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally heading in the right direction – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding performance is a prominent issue which needs attention.