The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes breathing
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their must-win last group match
ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin
The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a nail-biting victory over their opponents and keep their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Needing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the final six bowls.
Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling win for the Lankan team.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.
Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a poor fielding display.
They offered reprieves to Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.
Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.
She scored a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over causing a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.
During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the last two bowling phases, with only 12 runs necessary.
Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the death.
The Bangladeshi team fail to hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
Finally, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the final over, held her nerve. The opposition could not.
There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was much lower.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from ball one, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves overwhelming to accomplish.
But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been substantially lower.
It needed them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a tough catch behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was missed further on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed beside her.
Later in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a potential 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.
They are a side who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are competing in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a obvious issue which demands improvement.
