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

ICC Women's World Cup, 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 margin

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their faint chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the final moment.

In the end, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, kept her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting display. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been considerably smaller.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a difficult chance behind the stumps to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped again on 55 and 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with partners falling near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves after an fitness issue to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 at this competition and display the worst fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are typically progressing in the proper way – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a obvious concern which needs improvement.