Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their 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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the decisive innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and keep their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a dramatic success for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding performance.

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

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She registered a first international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

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

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the final two overs, with only 12 runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the final over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting display. They might well have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.

However, the batting side lacked purpose from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their catches in the field, that 203 total target would have been substantially lower.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a difficult opportunity while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the last attempt flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out around her.

Later in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 at this World Cup and have the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are playing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a glaring concern which demands attention.