The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a nail-biting win over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the last six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

They provided second chances to Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu could not make it count, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the death.

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

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side showed little intent from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a challenging opportunity while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped further on 55 and 63, the latter chance going straight to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling beside her.

Later in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 at this competition and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally moving in the proper way – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a obvious problem which demands attention.