The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their decisive final group game
ICC Women's 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); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their faint chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.
Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.
Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling victory for Sri Lanka.
The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding effort.
They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
While the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.
She achieved a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.
In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of the chasing team entering the final two bowling phases, with only 12 additional runs needed.
Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team fail to maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
In the end, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition could not.
There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was much lower.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little aggression from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves excessive to accomplish.
But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been substantially smaller.
It took them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a difficult chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.
Perera was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed around her.
Later in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties following an fitness issue to the regular keeper.
Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 at this World Cup and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are overall moving in the right direction – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a prominent problem which requires focus.
