India women hammer Sri Lanka by 8 wickets to clinch 7th Asia Cup crown in cricket

A clinical India hammered Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the final of the women's Asia Cup at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet, Bangladesh, on Saturday (15) to lift their seventh title in eight editions.

Nothing went right for the islanders, who won the semi-final against Pakistan by a solitary run, during the title clash apart from winning the toss. Chamari Athapaththu won the toss and elected to bat but her team ended up with a paltry total of 65 for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs, thanks to some disciplined bowling from the women in blue.

The Sri Lanka captain was the first to depart and half of the side was back for only 16 runs on the board in the sixth over. Pacer Renuka Singh was the wrecker-in-chief as she finished with three wickets for only five runs in three overs. The highest scorer for the Lankans was Inoka Ranaweera (18 not out), who came out to bat at No.10. They were reeling at 25 for 7 but a slight wagging by the tail saw Sri Lanka managing to survive the entire 20 overs.

For India, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Sneh Rana picked two wickets each.

The target of 66 was never going to be challenging and while India required just eight-and-a-half overs to knock off the runs, they lost two wickets in the form of Shafali Verma and Jemima Rodrigues. But opener Smriti Mandhana hit an unbeaten 51 off 25 balls while captain Harmanpreet Kaur made 11 not out to ensure that India did not lose more wickets.

Ranaweera and Kavisha Dilhari picked the wickets for Sri Lanka.

Singh was picked as the player of the match while India all-rounder Deepti Sharma, who scored 94 runs and took 13 wickets, was adjudged the player of the series.

India, who lost to Bangladesh in the final of the previous edition of Asia Cup in 2018, have now beaten Sri Lanka in the five finals of the Asia Cup.

Brief Scores: India 71 for 2 in 8.3 overs (Smriti Mandhana 51*, Harmanpreet Kaur 11*, Inoka Ranaweera 1/17) beat Sri Lanka 65/9 in 20 overs (Inoka Ranaweera 18*, Oshadi Ranasinghe 13, Renuka Singh 3/5) by 8 wickets