The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes 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): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the final six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They provided second chances to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu could not take advantage, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

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

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were later reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two overs, with merely 12 runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away only three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, held her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from the start, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

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

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a tough catch behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled further on 55 and 63, the latter chance going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with partners being dismissed near her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, although the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent issue which demands attention.