The Lankan team overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will face the Pakistani side in their crucial last group encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs
Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping win over their opponents and keep their narrow hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.
However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three defeats and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – moves them equal on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.
While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding effort.
They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.
She registered a maiden international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.
In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the remaining two overs, with merely 12 runs necessary.
However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the final over, kept her composure. Bangladesh did not.
There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was much lower.
However, Bangladesh showed little aggression from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to achieve.
But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been considerably lower.
It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a challenging catch behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.
The batter was spilled once more on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with partners falling beside her.
Later in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this World Cup and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a prominent problem which needs improvement.
