The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, 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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the final six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She achieved a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the last two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away merely three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the death.

In the end, it was a game of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a few of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the last over, maintained hers. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total target would have been considerably less.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to take a difficult opportunity while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed further on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this tournament and boast the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are overall moving in the right direction – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding performance is a glaring concern which requires attention.