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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and keep their narrow hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a attainable score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the final six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding performance.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition regret it.

She achieved a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

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

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a several of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the final over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side lacked intent from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to take a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners falling beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 at this competition and display the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are typically moving in the right direction – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding standards is a glaring concern which needs improvement.