The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth successive loss since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding display.

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

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

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

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team entering the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of teammates as she prepared to bowl the final over, maintained her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting performance. They might well have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side lacked purpose from the start, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves too much to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their opportunities in the field, that 203-run objective would have been substantially less.

It required them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to grab a difficult chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with partners getting out near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a possible 27 at this tournament and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the right direction – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a glaring problem which needs focus.