Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a thrilling win over Bangladesh and keep their narrow chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the remaining six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a disappointing fielding display.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded only three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the death.

Finally, it was a game of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of teammates as she prepared to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting display. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203-run objective would have been substantially lower.

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a challenging opportunity while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 and 63, the latter chance going directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this competition and display the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are participating in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a prominent issue which requires attention.