Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes breathing
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their crucial last tournament game
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 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
The Lankan side win by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the final innings segment to achieve a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.
Needing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the final six bowls.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting victory for the Lankan team.
The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.
Although Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.
They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
While Athapaththu could not capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.
She achieved a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an significant 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.
It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with merely 12 runs necessary.
Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the very end.
Bangladesh fail to keep calm - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, kept her composure. Bangladesh did not.
There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was much lower.
However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves excessive to accomplish.
But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially smaller.
It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.
The batter was missed once more on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed around her.
Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves following an physical problem to Joty.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this competition and display the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.
They are a side who are overall moving in the correct path – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a prominent issue which demands focus.
