The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive

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); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to complete a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their slim chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a attainable target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the last six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a poor fielding display.

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

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back to the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty restored their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the remaining two overs, with just 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the final over, maintained hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was much lower.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been substantially smaller.

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a challenging catch behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

The batter was missed once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners getting out around her.

Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a one-off. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this competition and display the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are participating in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring concern which demands focus.