Sri Lanka will confront the Pakistani side in their crucial final group game
Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin
Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the decisive innings segment to complete a nail-biting win over their opponents and preserve their narrow hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.
Chasing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.
However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting win for the Lankan team.
The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four tournament points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth successive loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.
Although Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the match to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a disappointing fielding effort.
They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.
Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition regret it.
She registered a first international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and building an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.
In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.
Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.
It was advantage Bangladesh entering the last two overs, with merely 12 additional runs needed.
Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away just three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the final moment.
The Bangladeshi team are unable to keep calm - and catches
In the end, it was a contest of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, held hers. The opposition failed to.
There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the target was considerably smaller.
Yet, the batting side lacked intent from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, suffering a early batting collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to achieve.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the field, that 203-run target target would have been substantially lower.
It required them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a challenging opportunity while keeping to remove Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was spilled again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners falling beside her.
Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to Joty.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 at this competition and boast the worst catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.
They are a side who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a prominent issue which requires focus.
