The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to achieve a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth straight setback since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a disappointing fielding display.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the start, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves too much to achieve.

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

It took them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a difficult opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

The batter was missed again on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed around her.

Later in the innings, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a little regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a possible 27 chances at this competition and display the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally moving in the correct path – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring problem which needs focus.