Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to achieve a nail-biting win over their opponents and keep their slim aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the last six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them level on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive loss since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

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

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

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

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the remaining two overs, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, held her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the target was much lower.

Yet, Bangladesh lacked intent from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203 total goal would have been substantially less.

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a difficult opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled further on 55 and 63, the latter chance going right to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a potential 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall moving in the proper way – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent issue which requires improvement.