The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini 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 margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Needing a attainable target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the remaining six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive setback since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu failed to capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

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

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team seized the win at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of teammates as she got ready to deliver the final over, held her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting performance. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was significantly less.

However, the batting side showed little purpose from the start, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the field, that 203 total target would have been significantly lower.

It required them three efforts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to remove Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was missed once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with teammates falling around her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a missed run-out, although the latter was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a possible 27 chances at this competition and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall heading in the proper way – they are competing in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a prominent problem which needs improvement.