The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): 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

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the decisive innings segment to complete a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the last six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She achieved a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the final over, kept her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target objective would have been considerably smaller.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a difficult chance behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed around her.

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

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and boast the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring concern which requires improvement.