The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign alive
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their must-win final tournament game
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 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 took four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a thrilling victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Pursuing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the remaining six bowls.
However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.
The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four match points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
Even though Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding display.
They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.
She registered a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.
In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the remaining two overs, with just 12 more runs required.
However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the very end.
Bangladesh cannot hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of teammates as she got ready to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the start, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.
But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total objective would have been considerably lower.
It took them three tries to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a difficult chance behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.
Perera was dropped further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying straight to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates falling near her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 at this World Cup and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.
They are a side who are overall heading in the correct path – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a prominent concern which requires focus.
