Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their crucial final tournament game
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs
Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to seal a thrilling victory over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the last six balls.
However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.
The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive setback since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding effort.
They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.
Even though Athapaththu was unable to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.
She registered a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.
While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.
Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their innings, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.
It was in favor of Bangladesh approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs needed.
However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team fail to hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she prepared to deliver the final over, held her composure. The opposition failed to.
There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.
Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.
But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the field, that 203 total goal would have been significantly less.
It required them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a difficult catch while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.
Perera was dropped once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed near her.
Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the second one was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.
They are a team who are overall heading in the right direction – they are participating in merely their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding standards is a obvious concern which requires attention.
