Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Needing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – moves them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive defeat since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding effort.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition pay.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the remaining two overs, with only 12 runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and allowed only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a few of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, kept hers. The opposition did not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the very beginning, accumulating runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves excessive to do.

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

It took them three efforts to end the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to grab a challenging opportunity while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was missed further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with partners getting out around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 at this tournament and have the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically heading in the proper way – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a obvious issue which demands improvement.