Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their tournament hopes breathing
The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their crucial final group match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to achieve a thrilling victory over their opponents and keep their narrow chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Needing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.
However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth consecutive setback since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
Although the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding effort.
They offered second chances to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Although Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.
She registered a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.
While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the last two overs, with merely 12 runs necessary.
Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away just three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.
Bangladesh cannot hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh did not.
There will be many inquiries about the team's batting effort. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was significantly less.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to do.
But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been substantially lower.
It needed them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to take a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.
The batter was missed again on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance traveling straight to Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed beside her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and display the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.
They are a side who are typically moving in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a glaring issue which requires attention.
