Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a nail-biting victory over their opponents and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.

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

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them level on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a poor fielding effort.

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

Even though Athapaththu could not make it count, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition regret it.

She registered a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the last two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, kept her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the required total was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little intent from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been substantially less.

It required them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty failing to grab a difficult opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was missed once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with partners falling beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a failed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this World Cup and boast the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall moving in the right direction – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent problem which demands focus.