Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing
The Lankan team will face the Pakistani side in their decisive last tournament game
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs
Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their faint chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Needing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine runs from the final six bowls.
Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.
The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
Even though Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a poor fielding performance.
They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.
She achieved a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.
In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later diminished to 44-3.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the last two innings segments, with only 12 additional runs required.
However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.
Bangladesh are unable to hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
Finally, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of fellow players as she prepared to deliver the last over, kept her composure. Bangladesh could not.
There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.
Yet, the batting side showed little purpose from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.
But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their opportunities 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, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a challenging opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was dropped again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed near her.
Later in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.
They are a team who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent concern which requires improvement.
