The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the final over to complete a heart-stopping win over their opponents and maintain their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive setback 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 Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back into the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

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

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the win at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the final over, maintained her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and ultimately making themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been considerably lower.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a difficult catch behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance flying directly to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed near her.

Later in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 opportunities at this World Cup and boast the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally heading in the correct path – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a glaring issue which needs improvement.