Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their crucial final group encounter
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 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 decisive over to seal a nail-biting win over their opponents and maintain their narrow hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.
Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the final six balls.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them level on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.
Even though the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a disappointing fielding display.
They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.
While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.
She achieved a maiden international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.
In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44-3.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was advantage the chasing team heading into the last two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs required.
Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team fail to maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she set herself to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.
There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.
Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves too much to accomplish.
But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203-run target would have been considerably less.
It required them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a challenging chance behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.
The batter was dropped again on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling beside her.
Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the keeping duties following an fitness issue to Joty.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this World Cup and have the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the eight teams.
They are a side who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a prominent problem which requires focus.
