The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign breathing
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their decisive last group encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the final over to complete a thrilling triumph over their opponents and preserve their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.
Needing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the last six bowls.
However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting win for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding display.
They provided lifelines to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition pay.
She scored a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an significant 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Joty restored their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with just 12 more runs necessary.
Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the very end.
Bangladesh fail to hold nerve - and catches
In the end, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the final over, kept her nerve. The opposition did not.
There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to do.
But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the field, that 203-run target would have been significantly smaller.
It required them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to take a challenging chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out around her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties after an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 at this tournament and have the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are typically heading in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding standards is a glaring problem which demands attention.