The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to maintain their campaign alive
The Lankan team will face the Pakistani side in their decisive final group game
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin
The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to seal a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Needing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the final six balls.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling win for the Lankan team.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the World Cup after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them level on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive setback since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.
They gifted lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
While Athapaththu could not make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.
She scored a first international fifty, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.
Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.
While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the remaining two innings segments, with just 12 runs required.
Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the death.
Bangladesh cannot maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
In the end, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the last over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh did not.
There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.
However, Bangladesh showed little intent from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to accomplish.
But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203-run target objective would have been considerably less.
It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty failing to hold a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.
The batter was missed further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed around her.
Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the second one was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.
Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this competition and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.
They are a side who are overall heading in the proper way – they are participating in only their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a prominent issue which needs improvement.
