Sri Lanka won their first Women’s Asia Cup title on Sunday with a decisive run-chase against India, delighting their home crowd. This victory marks only the second time India has lost in the Women’s Asia Cup final out of nine appearances. The previous occasion was in 2018 when Bangladesh defeated India by three wickets.
Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and chose to bat first in the final. India started well, but Sri Lanka made a comeback during the middle overs by taking the wickets of Shafali Varma (16), Uma Chetry (9), and Harmanpreet (11). Key contributions from Smriti Mandhana (60 off 47), Jemimah Rodrigues (29 off 21), and Richa Ghosh (30 off 14) helped India reach a total of 165/6.
In the run chase, Sri Lanka lost an early wicket when Vishmi Gunaratne was run out for 1. Sri Lanka’s experienced skipper Chamari Athapaththu settled in and got good support from Harshita Samarawickrama. The home team capitalized on this momentum and pursued their target steadily. Even though they lost Athapaththu (61 off 43) in the 12th over, Samarawickrama (69* off 51) and Kavisha Dilhari (30* off 16) guided Sri Lanka to victory in the 19th over. Match summary:
