Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the final over to complete a thrilling win over their opponents and keep their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth successive defeat since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding effort.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She achieved a first international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the remaining two overs, with just 12 runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of teammates as she set herself to bowl the last over, kept hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to accomplish.

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

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to grab a tough catch while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out beside her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this tournament and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically progressing in the proper way – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring issue which demands focus.