Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 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 over to complete a heart-stopping win over their opponents and keep their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the last six deliveries.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

They offered reprieves to Perera, who was spilled three times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu was unable to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a first international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

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

During their chase, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the last two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team seized the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the final over, held hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh lacked intent from ball one, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203-run goal would have been considerably less.

It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling beside her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are far from a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a prominent problem which needs improvement.