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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them level on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding display.

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

While Athapaththu could not make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She scored a maiden international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and building an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the last two overs, with just 12 runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a few of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, held her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was significantly less.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves excessive to do.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been considerably less.

It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a challenging catch behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed near her.

Later in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 at this tournament and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally heading in the proper way – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a obvious issue which requires improvement.