Sri Lanka overcomes the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their must-win last tournament encounter
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last over to achieve a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and keep their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the last six deliveries.
Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for the Lankan team.
The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, however, suffered a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
Although the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a poor fielding performance.
They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Even though Athapaththu could not capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition regret it.
She achieved a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back in the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.
In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were later brought down to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the final two overs, with merely 12 runs needed.
However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded only three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to hold nerve - and catches
In the end, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept her composure. The opposition failed to.
There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the required total was much lower.
Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to achieve.
But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203 total objective would have been significantly lower.
It took them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a challenging opportunity 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 missed further on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners falling beside her.
Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.
Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this competition and have the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.
They are a team who are typically moving in the correct path – they are competing in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding is a obvious problem which demands improvement.