The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi 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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and keep their narrow hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a poor fielding display.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu could not capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition suffer.

She achieved a maiden international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the final two bowling phases, with just 12 more runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded merely three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of teammates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, held her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but rather the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to take a tough catch while keeping to remove Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the last attempt going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners getting out near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this competition and display the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a glaring concern which demands focus.