The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes breathing
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their must-win last tournament match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to achieve a thrilling win over their opponents and preserve their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Chasing a modest score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.
Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic success for the Lankan team.
The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them level on four match points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight defeat since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
Although Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a subpar fielding display.
They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.
Even though Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.
She scored a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back in the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the last two overs, with merely 12 additional runs needed.
Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed only three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team fail to maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
In the end, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of teammates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was significantly less.
However, Bangladesh lacked purpose from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.
But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been significantly less.
It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to grab a difficult catch behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.
The batter was dropped again on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates getting out beside her.
Later in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the second one was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and display the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.
They are a side who are typically heading in the correct path – they are competing in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring concern which demands focus.
