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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their slim chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth successive defeat since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding performance.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She achieved a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.

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

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the final two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of teammates as she got ready to deliver the final over, held her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side showed little aggression from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their catches in the field, that 203-run objective would have been significantly smaller.

It took them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a difficult chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled further on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling right to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed around her.

Later in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a little unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this competition and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally heading in the right direction – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious concern which requires improvement.