Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and preserve their slim chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

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

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four match points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu failed to capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the last two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs required.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed only three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the final over, maintained hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was much lower.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a early batting collapse, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total target would have been substantially lower.

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling straight to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling beside her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and boast the lowest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall moving in the proper way – they are playing in merely their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring issue which demands focus.