The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes alive
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their decisive last group match
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 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
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs
Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a thrilling victory over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.
Chasing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.
Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling victory for Sri Lanka.
The win – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
Although Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding display.
They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.
While Athapaththu could not make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition pay.
She achieved a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.
In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs necessary.
Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed only three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the very end.
Bangladesh are unable to maintain composure - and catches
Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of teammates as she set herself to bowl the final over, held her nerve. The opposition failed to.
There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting effort. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was significantly less.
Nevertheless, the batting side showed little aggression from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.
But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been considerably lower.
It took them three efforts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was dropped once more on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling around her.
Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.
Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 at this World Cup and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a side who are generally moving in the right direction – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding is a prominent problem which demands attention.
