Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and keep their narrow hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

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

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a poor fielding effort.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu failed to capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a first international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and building an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were later reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team entering the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, held hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was significantly less.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the start, making runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves too much to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203 total target would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three efforts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to take a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was missed once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed beside her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties due to an injury to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a available 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the worst fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are overall moving in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a prominent concern which demands focus.