The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes alive
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their decisive final tournament encounter
ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari 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 complete a heart-stopping win over their opponents and keep their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six bowls.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a dramatic win for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.
Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.
They gifted second chances to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
While the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition suffer.
She achieved a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.
While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.
It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs necessary.
Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the death.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to keep calm - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, held her nerve. The opposition did not.
There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.
However, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves excessive to achieve.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been substantially less.
It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a tough chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.
Perera was missed again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with teammates falling around her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, while the latter was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties due to an injury to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this competition and boast the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a side who are overall heading in the proper way – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding is a obvious problem which demands improvement.