Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their crucial last group match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs
Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last over to achieve a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and keep their narrow chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six bowls.
However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic win for the Lankan team.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.
Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.
They gifted second chances to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.
Although Athapaththu failed to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.
She achieved a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later brought down to 44-3.
Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the final two innings segments, with only 12 runs needed.
Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the final moment.
Bangladesh cannot keep calm - and catches
Finally, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh did not.
There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the required total was significantly less.
However, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the start, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, suffering a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to achieve.
But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been significantly smaller.
It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a challenging chance behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt going straight to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates getting out beside her.
Later in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the latter was a little regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties due to an injury to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the lowest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.
They are a squad who are typically heading in the correct path – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious concern which needs focus.
