The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Needing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding display.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She achieved a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the final over, maintained hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting performance. They might well have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target would have been substantially smaller.

It needed them three efforts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to take a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with partners falling beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a little unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally heading in the right direction – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious problem which needs attention.