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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last over to achieve a thrilling victory over their opponents and keep their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the final six balls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth successive setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a poor fielding display.

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

Even though Athapaththu failed to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

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

Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the last two overs, with only 12 runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was much lower.

However, the batting side lacked intent from ball one, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

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

It took them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to grab a challenging catch behind the stumps to send back Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed beside her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves following an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a potential 27 at this tournament and have the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally moving in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a prominent problem which needs improvement.