Sri Lanka defeated defending champion India by eight wickets to win the women’s Asia Cup for the first time on Sunday. Thanks to skipper Chamari Athapaththu explosive fifty and Harshitha Samarawickrama’s steady half-century.
India has lost a final for the second time in nine Asia Cup editions (WODI and WT20I) across all formats. India’s latest defeat in a Women’s Asia Cup final was in Kuala Lumpur in 2018 against Bangladesh.
With 166 set as their formidable target, Sri Lanka managed to reach 167 for the loss of only two wickets in 18.4 overs because of some excellent serving from their skipper Athapaththu (61b, 43b, 9×4, 2×6) and Harshitha Samarawickrama (69 not out, 51b, 6×4, 2×6).
The Lankans consistently maintained an advantage over their India as Athapaththu and Samarawickrama put together an 87-run stand. In 33 balls, the former reached her fifty, while in 43 balls, the latter exceeded her threshold.
Nearly every accessible spot on the field was used by Athapaththu to score runs, and her attack on left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar, whom she blasted for two fours and a six in her opening over, was impressive.
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Samarawickrama was obviously weaker than her senior on the other end, but she made up for it with deft placements, including reverse sweeps off Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav, two left-arm spinners. When Sri Lanka got into a somewhat safer zone, she quickened the pace and slog-swept six over mid-wicket on the bowling of Radha Yadav.
Athapaththu appeared untouchable on the field until Deepti surprised everyone by bowling him around her legs with a fuller delivery in between. But those celebrations were short-lived when Samarawickrama found a capable companion in Kavisha Dilhari (30 not out, 16b, 1×4, 2×6), who helped the team win with Samarawickrama by putting up an unbeaten 73-run partnership off just 40 balls for the third wicket.
An equal share of credit should be given to the Lankan bowlers for restricting a group of free-flowing hitters in the Indian batting lineup.
Earlier, India reached a fighting total of 165/6 thanks to Smriti Mandhana’s conditions-defying half-century (60, 47b, 10×4), and the cameos of Jemimah Rodrigues (29, 16 balls, 3×4, 1×6) and Richa Ghosh (30, 14 balls, 4×4, 1×6) provided her with adequate support.
