The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and keep their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a debut international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

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

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

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

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the last over, kept hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh lacked purpose from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a challenging chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled again on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners falling around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this competition and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically moving in the right direction – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent concern which demands attention.