Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign breathing
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their must-win final group match
Women's Cricket 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
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs
Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Needing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine more 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 Akter to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
While Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding performance.
They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Even though Athapaththu failed to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.
She registered a first international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.
While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were later reduced to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.
It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the remaining two overs, with only 12 runs necessary.
However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team cannot maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the final over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was much lower.
Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to achieve.
But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been substantially less.
It needed them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a difficult catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed beside her.
Subsequently in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the keeping duties due to an injury to Joty.
Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a side who are overall moving in the correct path – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a glaring issue which needs attention.
