The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and keep their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

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

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a disappointing fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu could not make it count, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition pay.

She scored a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back to the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with just 12 additional runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been considerably lower.

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a challenging catch behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed once more on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with teammates getting out beside her.

Later in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a possible 27 at this competition and boast the worst catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring issue which requires attention.