Sri Lanka defeats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will face the Pakistani side in their decisive final group game
Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi 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); Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs margin
The Lankan cricket team took four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to complete a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.
Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.
Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling 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 New Zealand – elevates them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.
Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.
Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding display.
They gifted second chances to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition suffer.
She achieved a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and building an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.
The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back in the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.
During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the last two bowling phases, with just 12 runs required.
Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed merely three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the death.
Bangladesh fail to maintain composure - and catches
Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, kept her composure. The opposition could not.
There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the target was much lower.
However, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.
But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been significantly less.
It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a tough opportunity while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was spilled again on 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance flying straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with partners getting out around her.
Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves following an physical problem to Joty.
Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this competition and have the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are typically heading in the correct path – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a prominent concern which requires improvement.