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

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini 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 win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four match points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.

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

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the last two overs, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little intent from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to grab a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance flying straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed near her.

Later in the innings, there was also a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are typically heading in the correct path – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but poor fielding is a prominent issue which requires focus.