The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last over to achieve a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Needing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, held her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked intent from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a early batting collapse, and ultimately making themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had seized their opportunities in the field, that 203 total goal would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a challenging chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling right to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with teammates falling beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, although the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and boast the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically moving in the right direction – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a prominent concern which requires attention.