The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign 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): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and maintain their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

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

While Athapaththu could not make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition regret it.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the final two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs required.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the death.

In the end, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the last over, held her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting performance. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their opportunities in the field, that 203-run target would have been considerably lower.

It took them three efforts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a tough opportunity behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a return catch possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity going right to Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with batting partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an injury to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically heading in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding is a prominent concern which requires focus.