The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi 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); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the last over to complete a nail-biting victory over their opponents and keep their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a poor fielding display.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu was unable to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 complete.

During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the last two overs, with only 12 additional runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They might well have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was significantly less.

However, the batting side showed little purpose from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target would have been considerably lower.

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a difficult opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed further on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this competition and boast the worst catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the correct path – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious issue which needs improvement.