The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to keep their campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their crucial final group match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin
The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a nail-biting win over their opponents and preserve their narrow chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Needing a below-par target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.
However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.
The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
While the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding effort.
They provided lifelines to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
While the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.
She scored a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.
While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were later reduced to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.
It was advantage Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with just 12 runs necessary.
Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the death.
The Bangladeshi team fail to hold nerve - and catches
Finally, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, held her nerve. The opposition did not.
There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been pursuing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.
Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves too much to do.
But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been considerably lower.
It needed them three attempts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was missed once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed beside her.
Later in the batting effort, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.
Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and have the lowest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.
They are a side who are generally moving in the correct path – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding performance is a obvious issue which needs improvement.
