Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will meet the Pakistani side in their crucial final group encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their faint chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the final six bowls.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling victory for Sri Lanka.
The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.
They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.
While the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.
She achieved a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.
In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.
It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the final two bowling phases, with just 12 more runs needed.
Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team cannot maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the last over, kept her composure. The opposition failed to.
There will be many inquiries about the team's batting display. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was much lower.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked intent from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to achieve.
But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203-run target would have been significantly smaller.
It required them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a tough catch behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was spilled further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying right to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners getting out near her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and display the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.
They are a squad who are typically moving in the right direction – they are participating in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a obvious concern which requires focus.
