Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign breathing
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their decisive final tournament 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): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last over to complete a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and preserve their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.
Needing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the final six deliveries.
However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.
While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.
They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Even though Athapaththu failed to capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.
She achieved a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 total.
While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.
It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the final two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs required.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team cannot maintain composure - and catches
In the end, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the last over, kept hers. The opposition could not.
There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was significantly less.
However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the start, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.
But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target target would have been significantly lower.
It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty failing to grab a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was dropped again on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with teammates getting out near her.
Subsequently in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a little unlucky, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties after an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this tournament and boast the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.
They are a squad who are generally heading in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious issue which demands focus.
