The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their crucial final tournament encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs
Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine additional runs from the final six bowls.
However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a dramatic success for the Lankan team.
The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
Even though Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding performance.
They offered lifelines to Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.
While the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.
She achieved a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.
During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later diminished to 44-3.
Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the remaining two innings segments, with only 12 runs required.
Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the death.
Bangladesh fail to maintain composure - and catches
Finally, it was a match of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, kept hers. Bangladesh did not.
There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the required total was much lower.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the start, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves too much to accomplish.
But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target objective would have been significantly lower.
It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a challenging chance behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.
The batter was spilled further on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out near her.
Subsequently in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious concern which needs focus.
