The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their campaign ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi 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

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a thrilling victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

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

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding display.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition suffer.

She achieved a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back in the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were later reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the remaining two bowling phases, with just 12 runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed merely three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total target would have been significantly lower.

It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a difficult catch behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

Perera was missed further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling right to Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with batting partners falling beside her.

Later in the innings, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 chances at this competition and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding standards is a prominent problem which requires focus.