Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes alive
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their decisive last tournament encounter
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin
The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the final over to seal a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Needing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.
Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling success for the Lankan team.
The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
Although Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding display.
They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition pay.
She scored a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.
In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs necessary.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.
The Bangladeshi team fail to maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
In the end, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she prepared to deliver the last over, held her composure. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was significantly less.
Nevertheless, the batting side showed little aggression from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a initial wicket loss, and ultimately leaving themselves excessive to achieve.
But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203-run objective would have been significantly lower.
It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a difficult chance behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.
Perera was missed again on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with partners getting out around her.
Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.
Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a possible 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.
They are a squad who are generally moving in the right direction – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent issue which requires improvement.
