The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes alive
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their decisive last group game
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to achieve a nail-biting win over their opponents and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Chasing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.
Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.
Even though Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding effort.
They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Even though Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.
She achieved a maiden international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.
In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.
Sharmin and Joty restored their score, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was advantage the chasing team entering the last two innings segments, with only 12 runs needed.
Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the final moment.
Bangladesh fail to maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
In the end, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the final over, held her composure. Bangladesh could not.
There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was much lower.
However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to accomplish.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been significantly smaller.
It took them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.
Perera was dropped once more on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance going straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed around her.
Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves after an fitness issue to Joty.
Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and have the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.
They are a team who are typically moving in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding standards is a glaring issue which needs improvement.
