The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, 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

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their faint chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine runs from the final six balls.

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

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding display.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu failed to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a maiden international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team entering the final two overs, with merely 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the death.

Finally, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was much lower.

Yet, the batting side lacked intent from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to do.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been significantly less.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to hold a difficult opportunity while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with partners getting out near her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and have the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically progressing in the proper way – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent issue which needs attention.