The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a nail-biting victory over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the last six deliveries.

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

The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight loss since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

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

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the last two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the final over, held her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the chase was much lower.

However, the batting side lacked aggression from the start, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the field, that 203-run target target would have been considerably lower.

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to grab a challenging chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties following an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 at this competition and have the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically progressing in the proper way – they are competing in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but poor fielding performance is a obvious issue which demands improvement.