The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and keep their faint hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the last six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive loss since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a subpar fielding effort.

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

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back into the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their innings, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team entering the last two overs, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded only three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the final moment.

In the end, it was a game of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a few of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, maintained her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting effort. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves excessive to do.

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

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to take a difficult opportunity while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are generally heading in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a glaring issue which demands attention.