Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a poor fielding effort.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the remaining two bowling phases, with just 12 more runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh showed little intent from the start, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

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

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a tough catch while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed again on 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with partners getting out beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the keeping duties after an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 at this competition and have the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a obvious issue which needs improvement.