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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 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 emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and keep their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a attainable target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth successive loss since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was spilled three times, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu failed to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a maiden international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty restored their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the final two bowling phases, with just 12 runs required.

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

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, held her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total objective would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a tough catch while keeping to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed further on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with partners getting out around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the second one was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves following an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically moving in the correct path – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious concern which needs improvement.