The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth straight loss 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 initial ball of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding performance.

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

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing powerplay and they were later reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the final two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the last over, held her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was much lower.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run target goal would have been considerably smaller.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to take a difficult catch behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and have the worst fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally heading in the right direction – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a obvious issue which needs improvement.