The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup 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); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to achieve a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the remaining six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

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

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth straight setback since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a disappointing fielding display.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu was unable to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She scored a debut international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the last two bowling phases, with only 12 runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of teammates as she got ready to bowl the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had seized their catches in the field, that 203 total goal would have been considerably less.

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a difficult chance while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped once more on 55 and 63, the latter chance flying straight to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with partners falling near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a possible 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a obvious concern which needs focus.