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

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 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

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their slim chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six deliveries.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results 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 the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

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

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 more runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded merely three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, held her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting effort. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to achieve.

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

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on 55 and 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners getting out near her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the second one was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a available 27 at this competition and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are overall heading in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a prominent problem which needs attention.