Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their slim chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the last six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding display.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She registered a debut international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with just 12 more runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the win at the death.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the last over, held her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the chase was much lower.

However, Bangladesh showed little intent from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been considerably lower.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a challenging chance behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped once more on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going directly to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this competition and display the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a obvious concern which requires improvement.