The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their campaign breathing

ICC Women's 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); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the decisive over to achieve a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their faint hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Needing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They provided second chances to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She registered a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty restored their innings, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the final two overs, with merely 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept hers. The opposition did not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side showed little aggression from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been significantly smaller.

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to hold a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out around her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the latter was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 at this tournament and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the right direction – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a prominent concern which requires focus.