The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign breathing
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their crucial last tournament encounter
ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs
Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and maintain their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Chasing a modest target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six deliveries.
However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.
The win – the Lankan team's initial of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.
They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.
While Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.
She achieved a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.
Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were subsequently reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the last two bowling phases, with only 12 additional runs needed.
Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded only three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the death.
Bangladesh cannot maintain composure - and catches
Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a few of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the last over, held her composure. The opposition could not.
There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, the batting side showed little intent from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to achieve.
But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been substantially smaller.
It took them three efforts to end the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a tough chance while keeping to send back Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was missed again on her score of 55 and 63, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with batting partners falling beside her.
Later in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and have the lowest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent issue which needs attention.
