Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the decisive innings segment to complete a thrilling win over their opponents and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Needing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three defeats and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive defeat since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a subpar fielding performance.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu could not capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She registered a maiden international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the last two innings segments, with just 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the final over, maintained hers. The opposition did not.

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

However, Bangladesh showed little intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the field, that 203-run target would have been substantially smaller.

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a challenging catch while keeping to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped further on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves following an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and have the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring concern which needs improvement.