The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their campaign breathing

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): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the final over to seal a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth straight loss since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding display.

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

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a debut international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty restored their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of teammates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, kept her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting display. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked purpose from the start, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been considerably smaller.

It needed them three efforts to end the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the last attempt going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this competition and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious concern which demands focus.