The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to maintain their campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to achieve a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and keep their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the final six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth successive loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition pay.

She registered a maiden international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.

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

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the last two innings segments, with just 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the final over, kept her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the required total was significantly less.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the start, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target goal would have been substantially lower.

It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty not managing to take a difficult opportunity while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was missed again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the innings, there was also a failed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and have the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the right direction – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a obvious problem which requires attention.