Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive
The Lankan team will face the Pakistani side in their must-win last group game
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 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 took four wickets in the final over to seal a thrilling win over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.
Pursuing a attainable target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.
Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
Even though Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a poor fielding performance.
They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.
While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.
She achieved a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the final two bowling phases, with just 12 more runs needed.
Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away just three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the final moment.
Bangladesh fail to keep calm - and catches
In the end, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she prepared to deliver the last over, kept hers. The opposition could not.
There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the start, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to do.
But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been substantially smaller.
It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a difficult catch while keeping to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch chance against Rabeya.
The batter was spilled once more on 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling around her.
Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties after an injury to Joty.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.
They are a side who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a obvious issue which needs attention.
