Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their must-win last group encounter
ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs
Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last over to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their faint aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Chasing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the last six bowls.
However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling win for the Lankan team.
The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them level on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.
While Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding performance.
They gifted second chances to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
Although Athapaththu could not take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.
She scored a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.
In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.
It was advantage the chasing team entering the final two bowling phases, with only 12 runs required.
However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and allowed just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the very end.
Bangladesh cannot hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the last over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh did not.
There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked intent from the start, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been significantly less.
It required them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to hold a tough chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.
Perera was spilled once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with partners being dismissed around her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a possible 27 at this tournament and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.
They are a squad who are generally moving in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a obvious problem which demands attention.
