Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign alive
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their decisive last tournament match
ICC Women's 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); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to achieve a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and keep their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.
Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the final six deliveries.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.
The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth consecutive setback since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.
Even though Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding display.
They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.
She achieved a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the remaining two bowling phases, with just 12 additional runs required.
Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.
Bangladesh cannot hold nerve - and catches
In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, maintained hers. The opposition failed to.
There will be many questions about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.
However, the batting side lacked intent from the start, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately forcing themselves too much to do.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203 total target would have been considerably lower.
It took them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty failing to grab a tough catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.
The batter was missed again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with teammates falling beside her.
Subsequently in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, although the latter was a little unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and boast the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are overall moving in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a glaring concern which needs focus.
