The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the final innings segment to complete a thrilling victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu could not make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a debut international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the final two overs, with just 12 runs required.

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

In the end, it was a contest of nerve. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a few of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the last over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was much lower.

However, the batting side showed little aggression from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203 total goal would have been significantly lower.

It took them three attempts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to grab a tough catch behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a return catch possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled again on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with batting partners getting out around her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this tournament and display the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a prominent issue which needs focus.