The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a nail-biting win over their opponents and maintain their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the final six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth straight loss since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the match, 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.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the last two overs, with just 12 runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the very end.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of teammates as she prepared to deliver the last over, kept her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been substantially less.

It needed them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a challenging opportunity while keeping to send back Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are far from a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this competition and display the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the right direction – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding is a glaring concern which needs improvement.