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

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): 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 claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

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

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a dramatic success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them tied on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding effort.

They provided reprieves to Perera, who was spilled three times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu failed to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition pay.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two innings segments, with only 12 additional runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team seized the victory at the death.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a few of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, held hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from ball one, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been substantially less.

It required them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to hold a challenging opportunity while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners getting out near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the run-out chance was a little unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this tournament and boast the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a obvious issue which needs improvement.