Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign alive
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their must-win final tournament match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
Bangladesh 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 last over to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their slim aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.
Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.
Although the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding effort.
They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.
While the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.
She registered a first international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.
In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the final two innings segments, with just 12 more runs necessary.
Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team fail to maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, maintained hers. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.
Nevertheless, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.
But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been significantly lower.
It took them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a difficult chance as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was spilled further on 55 and 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed around her.
Later in the batting effort, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to Joty.
Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this tournament and boast the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.
They are a team who are generally moving in the right direction – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a glaring concern which demands focus.
