Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign alive
The Lankan team will meet the Pakistani side in their must-win last group encounter
ICC Women's 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
Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the final innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and maintain their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.
Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic win for the Lankan team.
The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
Even though Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a poor fielding effort.
They provided second chances to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.
While Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.
She registered a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were later brought down to 44-3.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.
It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the final two overs, with only 12 more runs necessary.
Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the very end.
Bangladesh fail to hold nerve - and catches
In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a several of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, maintained hers. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was considerably smaller.
Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, scoring at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to do.
But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203-run target target would have been significantly smaller.
It required them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a difficult chance behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was missed once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling right to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with batting partners falling near her.
Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.
Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this competition and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are competing in only their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent issue which demands improvement.
