Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): 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

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and keep their slim hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive defeat since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a subpar fielding performance.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

She achieved a first international fifty, making 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later brought down to 44 for three.

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

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

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

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled further on 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed around her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a glaring problem which demands focus.