The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to maintain their World Cup campaign alive
The Lankan team will confront Pakistan in their must-win last group 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): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin
The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and preserve their narrow chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.
Chasing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the final six balls.
However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic win for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a disappointing fielding display.
They gifted second chances to Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.
She scored a first international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.
In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their score, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was advantage Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with only 12 runs needed.
Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the final moment.
Bangladesh fail to hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, held hers. The opposition failed to.
There will be plenty of inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the required total was significantly less.
Yet, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves too much to do.
But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total target would have been substantially less.
It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to take a challenging catch while keeping to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was missed again on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with teammates getting out beside her.
Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.
Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.
They are a side who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a obvious problem which requires focus.
