The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their campaign breathing
The Lankan team will meet the Pakistani side in their must-win final tournament game
ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin
The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and keep their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Needing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.
However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for the Lankan team.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.
Although Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding display.
They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
While Athapaththu failed to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition suffer.
She achieved a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.
During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Joty restored their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was advantage the chasing team approaching the final two bowling phases, with just 12 runs necessary.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to keep calm - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, held hers. The opposition did not.
There will be many inquiries about the team's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was much lower.
Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves excessive to achieve.
But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203 total goal would have been substantially less.
It needed them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a challenging chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.
Perera was missed once more on 55 and 63, the latter chance going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out around her.
Subsequently in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, even though the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.
They are a squad who are typically progressing in the proper way – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a prominent issue which needs attention.
