Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

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): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the last over to achieve a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them level on four match points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding display.

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

Although Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a several of teammates as she set herself to bowl the final over, held her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked purpose from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been considerably less.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to hold a tough catch while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity going right to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a prominent concern which needs improvement.