The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to complete a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and preserve their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the last six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding display.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

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

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded only three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, held hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting performance. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the required total was much lower.

However, Bangladesh showed little aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been significantly smaller.

It took them three attempts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to hold a tough chance behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped further on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners getting out near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this tournament and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are typically moving in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but poor fielding is a obvious problem which requires focus.