Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their crucial final group match
ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs
Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the final over to complete a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and keep their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the remaining six balls.
However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting win for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.
While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.
They provided second chances to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.
She scored a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.
In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Joty restored their score, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was advantage the chasing team entering the final two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs required.
Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the very end.
Bangladesh cannot keep calm - and catches
Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the last over, maintained hers. Bangladesh did not.
There will be many inquiries about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.
However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.
But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been substantially lower.
It needed them three tries to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a tough opportunity while keeping to remove Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was dropped again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling beside her.
Later in the innings, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the second one was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.
Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 at this tournament and boast the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.
They are a team who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are playing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a prominent problem which demands focus.
