The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the final six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing powerplay and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the last two innings segments, with only 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the final over, kept hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to do.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203-run goal would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty failing to hold a tough opportunity behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying directly to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners getting out beside her.

Later in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 at this competition and boast the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally heading in the right direction – they are competing in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring concern which needs focus.