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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the decisive innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping win over their opponents and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the final six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them level on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive loss since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding display.

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

While Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty restored their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the final two innings segments, with only 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded only three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, kept her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh lacked purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been significantly smaller.

It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance flying directly to Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates getting out near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this tournament and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically heading in the proper way – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a obvious concern which needs attention.