The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the decisive over to complete a thrilling win over their opponents and keep their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

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

Even though Athapaththu failed to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with merely 12 runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the final over, held her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the required total was much lower.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little aggression from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total target would have been significantly smaller.

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a challenging chance while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed further on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt going right to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out near her.

Later in the innings, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a little regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a potential 27 at this World Cup and have the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are generally moving in the right direction – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding is a prominent issue which requires attention.