The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a heart-stopping win over their opponents and maintain their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the final six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth straight loss since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She registered a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with only 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of teammates as she got ready to deliver the final over, held her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the start, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total target would have been significantly lower.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a difficult opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out near her.

Subsequently in the game, there was also a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and display the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically moving in the right direction – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding performance is a obvious concern which demands attention.