The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the final innings segment to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them level on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a subpar fielding display.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the last two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs required.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the death.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of teammates as she prepared to bowl the final over, maintained her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was significantly less.

However, the batting side showed little intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203-run objective would have been considerably smaller.

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

The batter was dropped further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance going straight to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners getting out near her.

Later in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the worst catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are generally heading in the right direction – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a prominent issue which requires focus.