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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for the Lankan team.

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

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding display.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the final two innings segments, with only 12 more runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded merely three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the target was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked intent from the start, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to take a challenging opportunity while keeping to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners falling near her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and boast the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring issue which needs improvement.