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

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to seal a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and keep their slim chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

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

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding display.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

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

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the win at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting performance. They might well have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their catches in the field, that 203 total target would have been considerably smaller.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Joty being unable to take a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance going straight to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the latter was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 at this competition and have the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a glaring issue which needs focus.