Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): 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

The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and preserve their slim chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding display.

They provided reprieves to Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the remaining two overs, with only 12 runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of teammates as she prepared to deliver the last over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to accomplish.

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

It required them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped further on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed near her.

Later in the innings, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and have the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally heading in the correct path – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring issue which demands focus.