The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to achieve a thrilling win over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a below-par target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth successive defeat since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding display.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a debut international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the last two overs, with just 12 runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of teammates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target goal would have been significantly less.

It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a tough catch behind the stumps to remove Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance traveling directly to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this tournament and display the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically heading in the correct path – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a prominent concern which demands improvement.