Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will face Pakistan in their must-win final tournament match
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin
The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the last over to complete a thrilling victory over their opponents and maintain their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Chasing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the final six bowls.
However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.
Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding effort.
They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition suffer.
She achieved a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.
Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.
While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the remaining two overs, with merely 12 additional runs required.
Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the death.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to keep calm - and catches
In the end, it was a game of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, held hers. The opposition could not.
There will be many questions about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was much lower.
Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the start, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and ultimately making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.
But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been significantly smaller.
It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a tough opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was spilled further on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling around her.
Later in the innings, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the latter was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and display the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.
They are a side who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are participating in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a prominent issue which demands focus.
