The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to maintain their campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the last over to complete a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and keep their faint hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the last six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding effort.

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

Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a maiden international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a several of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked purpose from ball one, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been substantially less.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to remove Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was missed again on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the latter was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an physical problem to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this competition and display the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the correct path – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring concern which demands focus.