India maintained their dominance in the Women’s Asia Cup with an eight-wicket demolition of a self-destructing Sri Lanka in the final on Saturday for their seventh title in eight editions.
The day was extremely memorable for India as tight bowling from bowlers, Renuka Singh (3/5) in particular, restricted Sri Lanka to 65/9 in 20 overs. The target of 66 was chased down with very little inconvenience and it was Smriti Mandhana who top-scored with an unbeated 51* off 25 balls.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur also contributed with 11 not out as India won the game by 8 wickets and 69 balls to spare. Shafali Verma’s poor run continued as she could only score 5 runs while Jemimah Rodrigues, the top-scorer of the tournament, also fell cheaply; for 2.
Sri Lanka, who were in the finals after 14 years, never looked in the game. The batting line-up started to fall apart since the dismissal of their skipper. None of the Lankan batters could deal with the pressure as only 2 out of 11 batters scored in double digits.
The final match was held at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
