Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to preserve their tournament hopes breathing
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their decisive final tournament match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs
Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last over to complete a thrilling victory over their opponents and preserve their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Chasing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the remaining six bowls.
However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a exciting win for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.
While Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a subpar fielding performance.
They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.
While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.
She achieved a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over causing a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 total.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.
It was in favor of the chasing team entering the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs necessary.
However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the death.
Bangladesh are unable to maintain composure - and catches
Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh did not.
There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was much lower.
Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to achieve.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been significantly less.
It needed them three tries to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to grab a challenging chance as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was dropped once more on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out beside her.
Afterwards in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the keeping duties after an fitness issue to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and display the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the eight teams.
They are a squad who are generally moving in the correct path – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a prominent problem which needs attention.
