The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign breathing

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): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to complete a thrilling triumph over their opponents and maintain their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a poor fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the final two overs, with merely 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of teammates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked purpose from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves too much to accomplish.

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

It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty being unable to take a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped further on 55 and 63, the last attempt traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 at this World Cup and have the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring problem which demands improvement.