Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the final over to complete a thrilling victory over their opponents and maintain their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the last six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth straight defeat since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding performance.

They gifted lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition pay.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the last over, held hers. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves too much to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their chances in the field, that 203-run target objective would have been significantly smaller.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to grab a tough chance while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed further on 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with batting partners getting out around her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves after an fitness issue to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 at this competition and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are overall moving in the proper way – they are playing in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent issue which demands focus.