Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to keep their campaign alive
The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their must-win final group match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a thrilling triumph over their opponents and keep their slim aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.
Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six balls.
However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a dramatic win for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth successive setback since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.
Although the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a disappointing fielding display.
They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.
While Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.
She achieved a first international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.
While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were subsequently diminished to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Joty restored their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the remaining two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs required.
Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.
Bangladesh cannot hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
Finally, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was much lower.
However, Bangladesh showed little aggression from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually making themselves too much to achieve.
But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been considerably less.
It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a difficult catch while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.
The batter was spilled again on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed beside her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to Joty.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 at this competition and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent concern which requires attention.
