The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

The Bangladeshi team 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 decisive over to achieve a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding display.

They provided reprieves to Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team entering the final two innings segments, with only 12 runs required.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed just three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the win at the final moment.

In the end, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of teammates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, kept hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

However, the batting side showed little aggression from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203-run target would have been considerably lower.

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty failing to grab a difficult catch as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped once more on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt traveling directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 at this competition and boast the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a obvious concern which requires improvement.