The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the last six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the final two overs, with just 12 runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the required total was much lower.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a challenging catch behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled further on 55 and 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with teammates falling around her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and display the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent issue which needs focus.