Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a heart-stopping win over their opponents and keep their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them level on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive defeat since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding display.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing powerplay and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the last two overs, with just 12 runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been substantially lower.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners getting out around her.

Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but poor fielding is a prominent issue which needs attention.