The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their crucial final tournament match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 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 emerge victorious by seven runs
Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling win over their opponents and maintain their slim chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Chasing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the final six bowls.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.
The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth straight setback since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
Although Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding effort.
They offered second chances to Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.
Although Athapaththu failed to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition pay.
She scored a maiden international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs necessary.
Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team fail to maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of teammates as she got ready to bowl the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.
There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.
However, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, suffering a early batting collapse, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.
But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the field, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially lower.
It took them three attempts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a difficult catch as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was missed further on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates falling beside her.
Later in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are typically progressing in the proper way – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent problem which requires attention.
