The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Needing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the final six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu failed to capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She scored a maiden international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, kept her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the start, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been considerably less.

It required them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out around her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a potential 27 at this World Cup and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally heading in the proper way – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup after all – but poor fielding is a glaring concern which needs improvement.