Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign alive
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their decisive last tournament game
ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini 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 margin
Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to complete a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic win for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a disappointing fielding effort.
They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh pay.
She achieved a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards brought down to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the last two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs needed.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team seized the victory at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh could not.
There will be many inquiries about the team's batting display. They could easily have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.
However, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to do.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total target would have been significantly less.
It required them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to hold a challenging chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was missed further on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance going straight to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners getting out around her.
Later in the game, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a little unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.
Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and display the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.
They are a side who are generally heading in the right direction – they are participating in only their second 50-over World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring concern which demands improvement.
