The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

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

While Athapaththu failed to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She achieved a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the final two innings segments, with just 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of teammates as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, kept hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was much lower.

However, Bangladesh showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been significantly less.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to grab a challenging chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling around her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves after an physical problem to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a obvious issue which requires attention.