The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them tied on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth successive setback since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

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

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away only three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the final over, held her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the required total was much lower.

Yet, the batting side showed little purpose from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203 total target would have been significantly lower.

It took them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty being unable to hold a difficult chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the last attempt traveling directly to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners falling around her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious issue which demands focus.