Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their decisive last group encounter
Women's Cricket 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): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and keep their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.
Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the last six bowls.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for the Lankan team.
The win – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth straight loss since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding display.
They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
Even though Athapaththu could not capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.
She scored a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.
While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.
Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was advantage Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with just 12 runs needed.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team fail to keep calm - and catches
In the end, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a several of teammates as she prepared to bowl the final over, kept her composure. The opposition failed to.
There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.
Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from the start, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to achieve.
But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been significantly lower.
It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a tough catch while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was spilled again on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out near her.
Subsequently in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a prominent concern which demands focus.
