Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition pay.

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

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team entering the remaining two overs, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their opportunities in the field, that 203-run target would have been significantly smaller.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a difficult chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying right to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out beside her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, even though the second one was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this competition and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a obvious problem which demands focus.