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

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a thrilling triumph over their opponents and keep their narrow chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

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

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding display.

They offered reprieves to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the chase was much lower.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been considerably less.

It required them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a tough opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was missed once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the second one was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 at this World Cup and boast the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a prominent issue which needs attention.