Sri Lanka will meet the Pakistani side in their crucial last group match
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the final over to complete a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their slim aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Pursuing a modest score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the last six bowls.
Yet, 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 victory – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.
Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight defeat since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.
Although Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.
They offered lifelines to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.
She scored a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.
Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.
During their chase, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.
It was advantage the chasing team heading into the final two innings segments, with only 12 more runs needed.
However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed only three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the death.
The Bangladeshi team cannot maintain composure - and fielding opportunities
In the end, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the final over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.
There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was significantly less.
Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from the start, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves too much to do.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203 total target would have been substantially lower.
It needed them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was spilled again on 55 runs and 63 runs, the last attempt going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out near her.
Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the latter was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to Joty.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a possible 27 opportunities at this tournament and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.
They are a side who are typically moving in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a prominent issue which requires focus.
