The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

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

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth consecutive loss since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu failed to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition suffer.

She achieved a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the final two bowling phases, with just 12 more runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the death.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the last over, maintained her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was much lower.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203-run goal would have been considerably less.

It required them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a tough catch behind the stumps to send back Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was missed once more on 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and display the poorest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring problem which requires focus.