Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last over to complete a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the final two bowling phases, with only 12 runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a several of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, held her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and ultimately making themselves too much to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been significantly less.

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to take a difficult opportunity while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out near her.

Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, although the second one was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally heading in the proper way – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious concern which needs improvement.