The Lankan team overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign breathing
The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their crucial last tournament game
ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs
Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and keep their faint aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.
Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the final six bowls.
Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth successive loss since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
Although Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding effort.
They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Even though Athapaththu failed to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.
She scored a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.
It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with only 12 additional runs needed.
Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the win at the death.
The Bangladeshi team fail to keep calm - and catches
Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a several of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the decisive over, kept hers. The opposition failed to.
There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was considerably smaller.
Yet, the batting side showed little intent from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to do.
But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been considerably less.
It took them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a challenging chance while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was missed once more on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed near her.
Afterwards in the innings, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a little regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this competition and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are typically moving in the proper way – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but poor fielding performance is a prominent issue which requires attention.
