Pictures BS News Agency.
Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: The Indian women's cricket team won the 2018 Women's Asia Cup by 72 runs at the Dubai International Stadium. Shafali Verma's 68, Smriti Mandhana's 59 and Sri Charani's 4 wickets paved the way for the Indian team to win. The Indian team scored 183 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. In return, the Sri Lankan team's innings was bundled out for 111 runs.
In the final on Sunday, the Indian team won the toss and elected to bat. Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana added 128 runs in the opening partnership. She scored 68 runs off 39 balls with 9 boundaries and 2 overs. Mandhana also scored 59 runs off 39 balls. But due to a misunderstanding, she was run out and returned to the pavilion. Then, Shefali was caught by Chamari Atapattu off Chamudi Prabodha. Harmanpreet Kaur (14) and Richa Ghosh (17) came to the crease. But she did not last long. Gunalam Kamalini scored 15 runs off 5 balls in the last over to take India to 183-5.
Chasing a target of 184 runs to win, the Sri Lankan batters could never build a solid foundation for their innings. Indian bowler Kranti Gowda bowled Imesha Dulani out in the first over and sent her back to the pavilion. Atapattu and Vismi Gunaratne put up some resistance, but it was not enough to win the match. Indian bowler Deepti Sharma bowled Atapattu (36) and Gunaratne (20) in the same over to put Sri Lanka under pressure. Sri Lanka's score stood at 63-3 in 10 overs. That is, they needed 121 runs in the remaining 10 overs to win.
Indian bowler Sri Charani took 4 wickets to break the Sri Lankan spell. She took the wickets of Harshita Samarawickrama, Nilakshika Silva, Kabisha Dilari and Sugandhika Kumari. Sri Charmi's bowling figures were 4-20. Mithali Ayodhya was stumped by Prema Rawat. India's Deepti Sharma (3-19) was caught by Kaushani Nutyangana with the last ball.
With confidence in winning the Asia Cup, the Indian women's cricket team is determined to retain the Asian Games title and gold medal in Japan, led by Harmanpreet.