The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to complete a nail-biting win over their opponents and keep their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – moves them equal on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

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

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She scored a maiden international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two overs, with just 12 runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, maintained her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their catches in the field, that 203-run target goal would have been considerably less.

It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves after an injury to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically moving in the proper way – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious problem which demands focus.