The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes ongoing

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); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and preserve their faint chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding display.

They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She scored a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed just three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the final over, held her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

However, the batting side showed little aggression from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially lower.

It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was missed again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt traveling right to Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners falling around her.

Subsequently in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and boast the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the right direction – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a obvious concern which needs improvement.