The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 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 secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to complete a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.

They provided reprieves to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.

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

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the final two overs, with merely 12 more runs required.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of teammates as she prepared to deliver the last over, kept hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting performance. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was much lower.

However, the batting side lacked purpose from the start, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to do.

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

It required them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to take a tough catch behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with teammates being dismissed beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this competition and display the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent concern which demands focus.