Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and keep their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a attainable target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding performance.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition pay.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the final two overs, with merely 12 more runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to accomplish.

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

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Joty failing to hold a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed once more on 55 and 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties after an fitness issue to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are overall moving in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a glaring issue which demands improvement.