The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a thrilling win over their opponents and maintain their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the last six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding display.

They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the last two overs, with merely 12 runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the last over, kept her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

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

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a tough catch as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance flying directly to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 at this tournament and boast the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are overall heading in the correct path – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring problem which needs improvement.