The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to keep their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 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 secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a nail-biting victory over their opponents and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the final six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a exciting victory for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – moves them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth successive setback since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding performance.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu failed to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

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

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the last two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded merely three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of teammates as she got ready to deliver the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little intent from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves too much to achieve.

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

It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a challenging opportunity while keeping to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed further on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going right to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a little unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this tournament and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are playing in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a glaring problem which requires improvement.