The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to complete a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and maintain their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding performance.

They offered reprieves to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

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

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

During their chase, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring initial phase and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, held hers. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves overwhelming to do.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to grab a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped further on 55 and 63, the latter chance going straight to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates getting out near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are typically heading in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a glaring issue which demands focus.