Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

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

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a debut international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the remaining two bowling phases, with just 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the start, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their catches in the field, that 203 total objective would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a challenging chance while keeping to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying right to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring issue which demands attention.