The Lankan team beats Bangladesh to keep their campaign breathing
The Lankan team will confront the Pakistani side in their must-win last tournament encounter
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.
Needing a modest total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the last six balls.
Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.
The win – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them level on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.
While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a poor fielding display.
They provided reprieves to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.
She registered a first international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged 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 total.
In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their innings, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs needed.
Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed merely three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the death.
Bangladesh fail to hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
Finally, it was a contest of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, kept her composure. The opposition could not.
There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked intent from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to do.
But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total objective would have been significantly smaller.
It needed them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to hold a tough chance behind the stumps to remove Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was missed again on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed near her.
Later in the innings, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an fitness issue to Joty.
Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the competing sides.
They are a team who are generally moving in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a obvious issue which demands attention.
