Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their decisive last group game
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over their opponents and keep their narrow chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the final six balls.
Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling victory for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding effort.
They provided reprieves to Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.
Even though Athapaththu failed to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition regret it.
She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the match, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 complete.
While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later reduced to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 runs necessary.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team fail to maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
In the end, it was a match of nerves. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a few of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, kept hers. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the target was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves too much to accomplish.
But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been significantly less.
It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to grab a tough catch while keeping to remove Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was spilled again on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling right to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with partners being dismissed beside her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties following an fitness issue to Joty.
Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the competing sides.
They are a side who are typically moving in the correct path – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a obvious concern which demands focus.
