The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 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 took four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and keep their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – moves them equal on four points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a disappointing fielding effort.

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

Although Athapaththu could not take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a debut international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back into the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the final two overs, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of teammates as she got ready to deliver the last over, held her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

However, the batting side lacked aggression from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target target would have been considerably lower.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a challenging opportunity while keeping to remove Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the second one was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this competition and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally heading in the correct path – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a prominent problem which needs focus.