The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign alive
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their crucial last tournament match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and keep their faint chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.
Pursuing a attainable target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.
However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting victory for the Lankan team.
The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.
Even though the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding effort.
They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.
Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.
She scored a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.
During their chase, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two innings segments, with only 12 additional runs necessary.
However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to hold nerve - and catches
Finally, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition could not.
There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.
However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to do.
But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been substantially lower.
It needed them three attempts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a tough chance while keeping to send back Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was dropped further on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance traveling directly to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed near her.
Subsequently in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to Joty.
Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are overall heading in the correct path – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a glaring problem which needs improvement.
