The India Women’s team blew away Sri Lankan resistance to win their seventh Asia Cup title in eight editions.
In the final on Saturday, India recorded a thumping eight-wicket victory after restricting Sri Lanka, who were making their maiden appearance in the final, to a meagre 65/9 in 20 overs.
India knocked off the runs in 8.3 overs, with Smriti Mandhana striking a sublime 51 not out off 25 balls.
Lanka were reduced to 32/8 at one stage and could have folded for a sub-50 total had it not been for some late resistance from Inoka Ranaweera (18 off 22 balls).
Medium pacer Renuka Singh took 3/5, while Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Sneh Rana scalped two wickets each.
The chase looked like a cakewalk with Mandhana hitting six fours and three sixes.
Captain’s praise
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur lauded her bowlers and the fielding unit after the win.
“We should credit our bowlers. Our fielding unit was good from ball one and we discussed that we should not give away easy runs. You have to read the wicket and accordingly place the fielders in right positions,” Harmanpreet said at the presentation ceremony.
“We read the wicket well and positioned fielders accordingly. We were not looking at the scoreboard but only decided our five-over targets. We never thought about what is the total on the board and batted accordingly.”
Renuka, who was adjudged Player of the Match, said: “Very happy because the last few games I didn’t bowl well. Just focused on my basics and got success,” Renuka said.
All-rounder Deepti Sharma, who gave away just seven runs in her four overs on Saturday, was declared the Player of the Series.
“Really happy with the way we performed as a unit from the first game till today. We executed what was discussed in the meeting. I just back my strengths and those things helped me a lot in this tournament.
“The wickets were slow and before this tournament, I worked a lot on my batting and those sessions really helped me,” Deepti said.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 65/9 in 20 ovs (Renuka Singh 3/5). India Women 71/2 in 8.3 ovs (Smriti Mandhana 51 n.o.). India Women won by 8 wickets.
Written with inputs from PTI
