Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their must-win last group game
ICC Women's 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
Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over their opponents and preserve their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.
Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the final six bowls.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting success for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth consecutive loss since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.
Although Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding performance.
They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Although Athapaththu could not take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.
She registered a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.
It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the remaining two overs, with just 12 additional runs necessary.
Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away merely three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to maintain composure - and catches
Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, held hers. Bangladesh did not.
There will be numerous questions about the team's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.
Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves excessive to do.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been considerably less.
It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to grab a tough chance behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was dropped again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt traveling directly to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with partners getting out around her.
Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this competition and display the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.
They are a squad who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a glaring concern which requires improvement.
