The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign alive
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their must-win last group match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a nail-biting win over their opponents and keep their faint chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six balls.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting win for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding effort.
They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
While Athapaththu could not take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.
She achieved a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.
During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two bowling phases, with just 12 additional runs required.
Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team cannot maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, kept her composure. The opposition did not.
There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.
Yet, Bangladesh lacked intent from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves too much to achieve.
But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been substantially lower.
It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a difficult chance as wicketkeeper to remove Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was dropped again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners falling around her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a failed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.
Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.
They are a side who are generally heading in the right direction – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a prominent problem which requires focus.
