The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a thrilling victory over their opponents and keep their faint chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the last six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding performance.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She scored a maiden international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two overs, with only 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the field, that 203-run goal would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a challenging chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying directly to Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed around her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a little unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves after an injury to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the worst fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding is a obvious problem which requires focus.