The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to keep their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final over to complete a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and maintain their slim chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – moves them level on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding performance.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

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

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the last two overs, with only 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of teammates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, kept her composure. Bangladesh could 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 settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the chase was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203 total objective would have been substantially less.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a challenging chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled further on 55 and 63, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed near her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, even though the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a possible 27 chances at this tournament and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring concern which needs focus.