Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the final six deliveries.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight loss since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a poor fielding performance.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not take advantage, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a first international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the remaining two overs, with only 12 runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the win at the very end.

Finally, it was a match of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, kept her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting display. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side lacked intent from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to grab a tough chance behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners getting out around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and have the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally moving in the correct path – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring problem which needs improvement.