The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive setback since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding display.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu failed to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the remaining two overs, with only 12 more runs necessary.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she prepared to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was much lower.

However, the batting side lacked purpose from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203 total target would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a tough opportunity behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled again on 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with batting partners getting out beside her.

Later in the game, there was also a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 chances at this competition and have the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are typically progressing in the proper way – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring concern which requires attention.