Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes breathing
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their must-win last tournament match
ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 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
Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Pursuing a attainable target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the last six balls.
Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.
The win – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four match points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth successive setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
While the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a subpar fielding performance.
They provided lifelines to Perera, who was spilled three times, and Athapaththu.
While Athapaththu was unable to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.
She achieved a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back into the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.
While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were subsequently reduced to 44-3.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.
It was advantage Bangladesh entering the last two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs required.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the death.
The Bangladeshi team cannot hold nerve - and catches
In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, maintained her nerve. The opposition could not.
There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was much lower.
Nevertheless, the batting side showed little intent from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and finally leaving themselves excessive to accomplish.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been significantly less.
It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to grab a tough catch behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.
The batter was missed further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity going right to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed beside her.
Later in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves after an injury to Joty.
Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this competition and display the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.
They are a squad who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious concern which needs attention.