The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, 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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth successive defeat since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the remaining two innings segments, with only 12 more runs necessary.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the death.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a several of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203-run target target would have been considerably less.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a tough catch as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling beside her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this tournament and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent problem which requires focus.