Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their must-win last tournament encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 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
The Lankan side win by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the final over to seal a thrilling win over their opponents and maintain their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.
Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the final six bowls.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.
Even though the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding performance.
They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.
She scored a maiden international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.
While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the last two innings segments, with merely 12 runs necessary.
Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded only three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team cannot keep calm - and catches
In the end, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the final over, held her composure. Bangladesh could not.
There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was much lower.
However, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to accomplish.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been significantly less.
It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a tough opportunity while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya.
The batter was dropped further on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out around her.
Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a glaring problem which needs improvement.
