The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a thrilling win over Bangladesh and maintain their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the final six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight loss since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition pay.

She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over causing a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the last two overs, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the death.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the last over, kept hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was much lower.

Yet, the batting side lacked intent from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, suffering a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their opportunities in the field, that 203 total goal would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a tough chance behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the last attempt going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates falling near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent concern which requires attention.