The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a heart-stopping win over their opponents and keep their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was spilled three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 more runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to hold a challenging opportunity while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling around her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the latter was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 at this tournament and display the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically heading in the correct path – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a obvious issue which demands attention.