The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to complete a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them equal on four match points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth successive defeat since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a subpar fielding performance.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She achieved a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

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

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and allowed only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team seized the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, kept her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been significantly lower.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a difficult catch while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped further on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates falling beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this World Cup and display the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are competing in only their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious concern which demands improvement.