Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their crucial final group encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 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 took four wickets in the final over to complete a nail-biting win over their opponents and keep their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Chasing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the final six balls.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.
The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – moves them level on four match points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
While the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding display.
They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition pay.
She achieved a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 deliveries and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back in the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later reduced to 44-3.
Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.
It was advantage the chasing team entering the last two overs, with merely 12 runs needed.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the final moment.
Bangladesh fail to hold nerve - and catches
Finally, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of teammates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was much lower.
Nevertheless, the batting side lacked aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to accomplish.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the field, that 203-run goal would have been considerably less.
It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty failing to hold a difficult opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.
Perera was spilled once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going straight to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed around her.
Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, while the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties due to an injury to Joty.
Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this competition and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.
They are a team who are generally heading in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a glaring concern which needs attention.
