The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last over to complete a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and maintain their faint chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a attainable target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the final six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them level on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

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

Although Athapaththu was unable to make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She achieved a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the last two overs, with just 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded only three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, held her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159 for four in the 30th over, but rather the chase was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, scoring at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been considerably smaller.

It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to grab a difficult chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was missed again on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a little unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a potential 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall heading in the right direction – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a glaring concern which needs focus.