The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a thrilling win over their opponents and keep their slim hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

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

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She scored a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, held her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been substantially less.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled further on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a failed run-out, while the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and boast the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a obvious problem which requires improvement.