The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to complete a thrilling victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the last six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She achieved a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

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

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, maintained hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves too much to accomplish.

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

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a tough chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity going directly to Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with teammates falling near her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 at this tournament and boast the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally moving in the correct path – they are playing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a obvious issue which requires improvement.