The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the final over to complete a thrilling win over Bangladesh and maintain their slim hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

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

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight loss since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They provided reprieves to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

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

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing powerplay and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

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

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the last over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

However, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, scoring at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203-run target target would have been significantly lower.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a tough chance while keeping to send back Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped again on 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt traveling directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners falling around her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this World Cup and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally heading in the correct path – they are participating in only their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent concern which needs improvement.