The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the decisive innings segment to complete a thrilling triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the last six balls.

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

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four match points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight defeat since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding performance.

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

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She scored a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the final two innings segments, with just 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team seized the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she set herself to deliver the final over, held hers. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the target was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh lacked purpose from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total objective would have been considerably lower.

It took them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped again on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance going straight to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 at this World Cup and display the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall heading in the correct path – they are competing in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a prominent concern which requires improvement.