The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the final over to achieve a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the final six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding display.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu could not take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a first international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the final two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, maintained hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting effort. They might well have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked purpose from the start, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total target would have been substantially less.

It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance traveling straight to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with partners getting out near her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this competition and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are playing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding is a obvious concern which needs focus.