Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign ongoing
The Lankan team will meet Pakistan in their crucial final tournament encounter
ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai
Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27
The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42
The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs
The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the last over to complete a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and keep their slim aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.
Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the final six deliveries.
However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting success for Sri Lanka.
The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.
The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth consecutive loss since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.
Although Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.
They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.
Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.
She scored a debut international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.
Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.
During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.
Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.
It was advantage the chasing team heading into the final two overs, with merely 12 additional runs required.
Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the very end.
Bangladesh are unable to hold nerve - and fielding opportunities
In the end, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a few of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, kept her composure. The opposition could not.
There will be many doubts about the team's batting effort. They might well have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the target was much lower.
Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves excessive to do.
But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target goal would have been significantly lower.
It took them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to take a tough opportunity while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya.
Perera was missed again on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed around her.
Later in the innings, there was also a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to Joty.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a possible 27 at this tournament and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.
They are a team who are generally heading in the right direction – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a prominent concern which needs attention.