The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to seal a thrilling win over their opponents and keep their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the final six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

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

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She scored a debut international fifty, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed only three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, held hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little intent from the start, making runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a difficult chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was missed again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this tournament and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent issue which requires attention.