Pictures BS News Agency.
Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: The Indian cricket team defeated Bangladesh by 40 runs in Dubai on Thursday to enter the Women's Asia Cup final. This will be the 10th time that Indian women cricketers will play in the final. The Indian team has made it to every final since the beginning of the Asia Cup. Now it remains to be seen whether the Indian team will become the champion for the 8th time under the leadership of Harmanpreet Kaur? Harmanpreet will face the winner of Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the final.
Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana sent seven-time Asia Cup champion India to bat first after winning the toss. Harmanpreet's India entered the semi-finals as favourites after winning all the matches in the group stage. Batting first, they lost Smriti Mandhana (2) wickets in the beginning, but Shafali Verma's 64 runs in 40 balls strengthened India's innings. Shefali added 50 runs in a partnership with Pratik Rawal (20). However, luck was on Shefali's side. Bangladesh fielders caught Shefali on 6, 11 and 56 runs. Shefali narrowly escaped being run out once more. She was eventually caught by Farzana Yasmin, who was replaced by Sultana Khatun, and returned to the pavilion. At that time, India's score was 92-3.
Earlier, when Pratika was caught by Rabeya Khan's hand, India's score was 59-2. India scored 149 runs in 20 overs, losing 6 wickets. Apart from Shefali and Pratika, Harmanpreet (24 not out) and Richa Ghosh (21) scored notable runs. Richa was dismissed when India's score was 128. Deepti Sharma came in to bat and played a blistering innings of 13 runs off 6 balls. Bangladesh bowler Sultana Khatun took 2 wickets for 30 runs.
Bangladesh needed to score 150 runs to win. But Bangladesh women cricketers lost wickets regularly from the beginning and could not reach that target. Indian bowler Sricharani gave the initial blow. Later, Deepti Sharma (3-26) and Nandini Sharma (2-10) did the work of breaking the Bangladesh innings. That is why Bangladesh could not score more than 109 runs for 7 wickets in 20 overs. Except Dilara Akhtar (21), Shorna Akhtar (21 not out), Nigar Sultana (19), no one else could score big runs for Bangladesh.