The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth successive loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding performance.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.

She registered a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the final two innings segments, with just 12 runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a several of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the final over, kept her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was much lower.

However, the batting side showed little intent from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total target would have been significantly less.

It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to grab a tough chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the run-out chance was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this tournament and boast the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally moving in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a obvious issue which requires improvement.