The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the final over to complete a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling win for the Lankan team.

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

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition regret it.

She achieved a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with just 12 additional runs required.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a game of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the final over, maintained hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to take a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped further on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with partners getting out around her.

Later in the innings, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and display the poorest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally heading in the correct path – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent issue which needs improvement.