Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes breathing
The Lankan team will meet the Pakistani side in their must-win last tournament encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin
The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.
Needing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six bowls.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.
The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive loss since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a subpar fielding display.
They offered lifelines to Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.
While Athapaththu failed to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition pay.
She registered a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.
Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.
While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the final two overs, with only 12 additional runs necessary.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away merely three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the final moment.
Bangladesh fail to keep calm - and catches
In the end, it was a contest of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the last over, held hers. Bangladesh did not.
There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was significantly less.
Yet, the batting side lacked intent from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.
But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been considerably less.
It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a challenging chance while keeping to send back Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was spilled again on 55 and 63, the latter chance going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with partners falling around her.
Subsequently in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves due to an fitness issue to Joty.
Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 at this tournament and display the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are overall heading in the correct path – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a obvious concern which demands focus.
