The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their must-win last tournament game
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the final over to achieve a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.
Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.
Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting win for the Lankan team.
The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
Even though Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding display.
They provided second chances to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.
She scored a maiden international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 total.
In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the remaining two overs, with just 12 runs necessary.
Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the death.
The Bangladeshi team fail to keep calm - and catches
In the end, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, kept her composure. Bangladesh did not.
There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the target was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little intent from the start, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to do.
But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total objective would have been significantly lower.
It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to take a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.
The batter was missed further on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with partners getting out around her.
Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, although the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties after an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are overall moving in the proper way – they are competing in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious issue which demands improvement.
