The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve 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): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the last over to achieve a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and keep their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the last six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth consecutive setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a poor fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over causing a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the final two overs, with only 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the final over, held hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 for four in the 30th over, but rather the required total was much lower.

Yet, the batting side showed little purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203-run objective would have been significantly lower.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a tough catch while keeping to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling around her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a potential 27 chances at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are typically heading in the right direction – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious issue which requires focus.