The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the last six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a maiden international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two innings segments, with only 12 additional runs required.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the chase was significantly less.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little purpose from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been substantially less.

It needed them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a difficult catch behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled again on her score of 55 and 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are generally moving in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a glaring issue which needs focus.