Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth successive loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a disappointing fielding display.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu failed to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

She scored a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the remaining two innings segments, with only 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the start, scoring at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three tries to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a difficult catch behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going directly to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners falling around her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a possible 27 at this competition and have the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the proper way – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a obvious issue which requires attention.