Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup campaign ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the final innings segment to achieve a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the remaining six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth consecutive setback since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a subpar fielding performance.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She scored a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 total.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the remaining two overs, with just 12 runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, kept hers. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was much lower.

However, the batting side showed little intent from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run target would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty not managing to take a tough catch while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed further on 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the second one was a little regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a potential 27 opportunities at this World Cup and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a prominent concern which needs attention.