The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their decisive last group encounter
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the decisive over to seal a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and preserve their slim chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.
Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the last six deliveries.
However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.
The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four match points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
Even though Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding display.
They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.
Even though Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.
She registered a maiden international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.
While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44 for three.
Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.
It was in favor of the chasing team entering the final two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs required.
Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the final moment.
Bangladesh cannot keep calm - and catches
Finally, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the final over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh did not.
There will be many doubts about the team's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was significantly less.
Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to do.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run target would have been significantly less.
It took them three attempts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty failing to hold a challenging chance behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.
The batter was missed once more on 55 and 63, the last attempt going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners getting out around her.
Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and boast the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a side who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a obvious issue which requires attention.
