Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 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

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the last over to seal a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the remaining six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – moves them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She registered a debut international fifty, making 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the final two innings segments, with just 12 runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the death.

Finally, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the last over, held hers. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting performance. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the start, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been significantly less.

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a tough opportunity behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this tournament and have the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a prominent concern which requires focus.