The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and maintain their slim hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the final six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She registered a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over causing a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and 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 Akter and Joty restored their innings, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two overs, with only 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a game of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, kept her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been significantly less.

It took them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a tough opportunity while keeping to remove Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped again on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed beside her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the latter was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a possible 27 at this World Cup and display the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the right direction – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a prominent problem which requires improvement.