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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to complete a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the final six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

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

While Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding performance.

They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu failed to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their score, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the last two overs, with just 12 additional runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded only three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team seized the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of nerve. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to bowl the last over, held her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the target was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves too much to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a return catch possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and display the worst catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are participating in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent concern which demands focus.