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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the final over to complete a thrilling win over Bangladesh and preserve their slim hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a attainable target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition suffer.

She registered a maiden international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

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

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, held hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the chase was significantly less.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the start, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves excessive to accomplish.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been considerably lower.

It needed them three efforts to end the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Joty being unable to take a challenging catch behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled further on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with teammates getting out near her.

Subsequently in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a little unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this tournament and boast the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are overall heading in the right direction – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring issue which requires attention.