Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to keep their campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the decisive over to seal a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Needing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

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

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a maiden international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back to the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with just 12 more runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the death.

In the end, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to bowl the last over, held hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a early batting collapse, and eventually leaving themselves too much to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been significantly lower.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a challenging chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling directly to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with batting partners getting out around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties after an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are competing in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent concern which requires focus.