The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and preserve their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches 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 meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding performance.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She achieved a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the last two overs, with just 12 more runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, held her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting performance. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was much lower.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the start, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been considerably less.

It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to grab a difficult catch behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 and 63, the latter chance traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this competition and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent issue which needs focus.