The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to keep their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 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 margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the last over to seal a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and preserve their faint aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding display.

They provided second chances to Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu failed to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She registered a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back into the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team seized the victory at the final moment.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she set herself to bowl the final over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be many questions about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves too much to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had taken their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a difficult chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled further on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity traveling straight to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed beside her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a potential 27 at this tournament and have the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally moving in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a prominent issue which demands focus.