The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini 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 margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the final innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth consecutive loss since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

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

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the last two innings segments, with only 12 more runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team seized the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the last over, kept hers. The opposition did not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the required total was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203 total goal would have been significantly lower.

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a difficult catch behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled once more on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity going directly to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties following an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a glaring problem which demands attention.