The trophy controversy may have overshadowed India’s emphatic win over Sri Lanka in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup final, but this Indian team is simply outstanding.
They have wonderful stroke-makers and a superb bowling attack. With a bit more work in the fielding department, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led team could seriously threaten Australia, the world’s best women’s team, in every World Cup.
The 72-run win at Dubai International Stadium on Sunday earned India a record-extending eighth Asia Cup title.
Riding on brilliant half-centuries from openers Smriti Mandhana (59) and Shafali Verma (68), India made an imposing 183 for five.
In reply, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 111 in the final ball of their innings as spinners Shree Charani (4-1-20-4) and Deepti Sharma (4-0-19-3) delivered brilliant spells.
Skipper Harmanpreet was delighted after India recorded their eighth Asia Cup title.
“We know they are a great team. But we played to our standards. We set high standards for ourselves and we wanted to keep matching them. Very happy with the way we all performed,” Kaur said before praising Mandhana and Verma for their outstanding partnership.
“Yes, the openers did a great job for us. The way Shafali and Smriti batted like they did. Great to see someone like Shafali take responsibility through the tournament with the bat and ball.”
After electing to bat, India got off to a flying start. Mandhana and Verma, in their contrasting styles, put the Lankan attack to the sword on a wicket that assisted shot-making.
After a series of matches on slow pitches, the final saw a true wicket where the ball came nicely onto the bat and the two Indian openers made the most of it with some delightful shots, bringing loud cheers from the 16,400 fans who arrived at the stadium.
The 129-run opening partnership killed the game as a contest as India went on to post a big total despite a middle-order wobble.
In reply, Sri Lanka lost opener Imesha Dulani in the first over, but skipper Chamari Athapaththu (36) and number three Vishmi Gunaratne (20) tried to revive the innings with an impressive 58-run partnership for the second wicket.
It was then that Charani, with her left-arm spin, and off-spinner Sharma joined hands, putting on a masterclass of slow bowling to trigger a stunning Lankan batting collapse.
The emphatic win was also sweet revenge for India, having lost the 2024 Asia Cup final to Sri Lanka.
Lankan skipper Athapaththu was gracious in defeat.
“This is the part of the game, one team wins, one team loses. But at the end of the day, we did not play our best game in all three departments. They played very well,” the veteran batter said.
“But we will bounce back. Asian Games are coming up. And we will bounce back. We played really good cricket throughout the tournament, but today we struggled a little bit. It doesn’t mean we are not good enough.”
Indian coach Amol Muzumdar, though, saw room for improvement after five dropped catches against Sri Lanka.
“Well, that’s a good thing to have, isn’t it, as a coach, that there is something for us to work on,” Muzumdar said. “I think there are so many aspects of the game that we really focus on in our camps, it’s real hard work that we put in.
“Before the Asia Cup, a lot of emphasis was put on the fielding aspect, the fitness part was looked after really well in the camp prior to this tournament, and also the running between wickets. So yeah, we’ve been working really hard on certain aspects where we think that there is a lot of scope for improvement and we march ahead. We don’t get satisfied with any tournament. Once the tournament is over, we look forward to the next one.”
Source: Khaleej Times