The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the decisive over to complete a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and keep their slim chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

She scored a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the last two bowling phases, with just 12 additional runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the final moment.

In the end, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of teammates as she prepared to bowl the final over, maintained hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was much lower.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the start, accumulating runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target goal would have been significantly less.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to take a challenging catch while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was missed once more on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance flying right to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with partners getting out near her.

Later in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, while the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a possible 27 chances at this competition and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally moving in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a glaring concern which needs focus.