Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and keep their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the last six deliveries.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding display.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu failed to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She scored a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the last two overs, with merely 12 runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was much lower.

However, the batting side lacked intent from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving 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 significantly less.

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a tough chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity going directly to Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners falling around her.

Later in the innings, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and display the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are generally moving in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a prominent concern which demands focus.