Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and maintain their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth successive defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding display.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu could not capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.

She registered a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, held her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been considerably smaller.

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a difficult opportunity while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance going right to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with partners getting out beside her.

Later in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding is a obvious issue which requires attention.