The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain 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): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the final over to complete a thrilling win over Bangladesh and keep their narrow chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

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

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a subpar fielding display.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu could not make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She achieved a first international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

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

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with just 12 more runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and allowed only three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th over, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this competition and have the lowest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically moving in the right direction – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious concern which demands focus.