Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their World Cup campaign breathing
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their decisive final group match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to complete a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.
Chasing a attainable target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the final six bowls.
However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting win for the Lankan team.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a disappointing fielding effort.
They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Even though Athapaththu failed to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition suffer.
She registered a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.
While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later reduced to 44-3.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.
It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the final two innings segments, with merely 12 runs required.
However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the final moment.
Bangladesh are unable to hold nerve - and catches
Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of teammates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to do.
But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the field, that 203-run target would have been significantly less.
It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a tough chance while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was dropped again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance going directly to Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed around her.
Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to Joty.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this tournament and display the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.
They are a team who are typically moving in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a prominent concern which demands attention.
