The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to keep their campaign ongoing

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): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last 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 target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the last six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them level on four match 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, experienced a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding display.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

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

She scored a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded only three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept hers. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the start, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been considerably less.

It needed them three attempts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going straight to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a available 27 opportunities at this World Cup and boast the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally heading in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a glaring issue which demands focus.