The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will face the Pakistani side in their must-win final group encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, 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
Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their slim aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Chasing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the remaining six balls.
However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting success for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.
Although Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.
They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.
Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.
She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.
During their chase, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the final two bowling phases, with only 12 runs required.
Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to keep calm - and catches
Finally, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh did not.
There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting effort. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the chase was significantly less.
Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to accomplish.
But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203 total target would have been considerably less.
It needed them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a difficult chance behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was dropped further on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying right to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with partners getting out around her.
Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties after an injury to Joty.
Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this competition and have the worst catching success rate (48.1%) of the eight teams.
They are a squad who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring concern which demands improvement.
