Sri Lanka will face Pakistan in their crucial final tournament game
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27
Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side win by seven runs
Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive over to achieve a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.
Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.
However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic success for Sri Lanka.
The win – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them level on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.
Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.
They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.
Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh pay.
She registered a maiden international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.
Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.
Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the final two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs necessary.
Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring 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 final moment.
Bangladesh fail to keep calm - and catches
Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of teammates as she set herself to bowl the final over, maintained hers. The opposition did not.
There will be many doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.
Nevertheless, the batting side lacked aggression from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.
But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially smaller.
It took them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to take a tough catch behind the stumps to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.
Perera was dropped once more on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners falling beside her.
Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, although the latter was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to Joty.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a glaring concern which demands improvement.
