The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a thrilling win over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the last six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them level on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu failed to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She scored a first international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were later reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

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

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the final two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of teammates as she prepared to bowl the last over, maintained hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the target was much lower.

Yet, the batting side lacked intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches 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 collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to grab a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was missed further on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties following an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and boast the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally moving in the proper way – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent issue which needs improvement.