The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a thrilling victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the last six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu could not take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the final two overs, with only 12 more runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded merely three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of teammates as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, maintained her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh lacked intent from the start, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been substantially smaller.

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to send back Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped once more on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling straight to Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with partners falling around her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the second one was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an injury to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a obvious issue which needs improvement.