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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): 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 margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and keep their narrow chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine runs from the final six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a poor fielding effort.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu was unable to make it count, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.

She achieved a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were later reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the last two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a several of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, kept hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was significantly less.

However, the batting side showed little intent from the start, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been significantly lower.

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to grab a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt going right to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 at this tournament and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the proper way – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious issue which requires improvement.