Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and maintain their faint hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the last six deliveries.

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

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded only three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the final over, kept her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting display. They might well have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh lacked aggression from ball one, scoring at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total objective would have been significantly lower.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped further on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance going right to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed around her.

Later in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties due to an injury to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a possible 27 opportunities at this tournament and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically heading in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious problem which needs improvement.