The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a heart-stopping win over their opponents and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth straight defeat since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition suffer.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the final two innings segments, with only 12 runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded merely three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, held hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was significantly less.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203 total target would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a tough catch while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped once more on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves after an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and have the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are generally moving in the right direction – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a obvious problem which needs attention.