Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to complete a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

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

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a first international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the final two bowling phases, with only 12 runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the death.

In the end, it was a game of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting display. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to achieve.

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

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a difficult chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt flying directly to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with teammates being dismissed beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 opportunities at this World Cup and boast the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally heading in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a obvious issue which demands focus.