The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to complete a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Needing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

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

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a poor fielding performance.

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

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She achieved a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back in the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded only three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of teammates as she got ready to deliver the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was much lower.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves too much to do.

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

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a tough opportunity behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed again on her score of 55 and 63, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with batting partners getting out beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, although the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this World Cup and boast the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally heading in the correct path – they are playing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding performance is a prominent concern which demands improvement.