The Lankan team defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing
Sri Lanka will meet Pakistan in their decisive final tournament match
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a nail-biting win over their opponents and keep their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Chasing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.
Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.
The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal 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 straight loss since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.
While Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding display.
They provided second chances to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Although Athapaththu could not capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.
She achieved a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 complete.
During their chase, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs needed.
Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the win at the very end.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to maintain composure - and catches
Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, kept her composure. Bangladesh could not.
There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was significantly less.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the start, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves too much to do.
But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had taken their catches in the field, that 203 total objective would have been considerably lower.
It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to hold a challenging chance behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was dropped further on her score of 55 and 63, the last attempt going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with batting partners falling near her.
Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a possible 27 chances at this competition and have the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.
They are a side who are typically heading in the right direction – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious concern which demands focus.