The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive over to seal a thrilling victory over their opponents and keep their narrow chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the final six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding performance.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu could not capitalise, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.

She achieved a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the final two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the final over, maintained her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was much lower.

However, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.

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

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a difficult chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped further on her score of 55 and 63, the last attempt going straight to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with partners getting out near her.

Later in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and have the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally heading in the right direction – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent problem which needs attention.