The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes alive

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); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the final over to complete a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She achieved a maiden international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing powerplay and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the last two overs, with only 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little aggression from the start, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves too much to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run target goal would have been substantially lower.

It required them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a difficult chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was missed further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying directly to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with teammates getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 at this World Cup and boast the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally heading in the correct path – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a obvious issue which needs improvement.