The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last over to seal a thrilling triumph over their opponents and keep their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic success for Sri Lanka.

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

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She registered a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the final two bowling phases, with only 12 runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded only three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of teammates as she prepared to bowl the last over, maintained hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been significantly lower.

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled again on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going right to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties after an injury to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and boast the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall moving in the right direction – they are competing in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding standards is a obvious issue which requires improvement.