Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

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): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and keep their narrow hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding effort.

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

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She achieved a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

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

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the final two innings segments, with just 12 more runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total target would have been substantially smaller.

It required them three attempts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to hold a challenging catch behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed further on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with partners getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 at this World Cup and boast the worst catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are overall heading in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent problem which requires improvement.