The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the last over to complete a nail-biting win over their opponents and keep their slim hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.

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

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

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

While Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a subpar fielding performance.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the remaining two overs, with only 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the final over, held her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting display. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was much lower.

However, Bangladesh showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to achieve.

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

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty being unable to take a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed around her.

Later in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this World Cup and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are typically moving in the correct path – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent problem which needs improvement.