Home ›› 16 Oct 2022 ›› Sport
As Smriti Mandhana smashed Oshadi Ranasinghe over long-on for a six, the Asia Cup crown was back to the Indians.
Ahead of the Women’s Asia Cup 2022 in Sylhet, India were the favourites. But the supreme manner they won the final was incredibly unexpected.
India had won six of the last seven Asia Cups, only missing out on the 2018 edition to Bangladesh. But as they thrashed Sri Lanka by eight wickets on Saturday, they reached seventh heaven.
Batting first, Sri Lanka showed signs of pressure from playing a final as their experienced campaigner, and skipper Chamari Athapaththu was run out in the third over.
What followed was a collapse as they lost five wickets in the next four overs and were reduced to 18-6 within the seventh over.
Some gritty batting from Sugandika Kumari (6 off 24 deliveries), Inoka Ranaweera (18* off 22 deliveries), and Achini Kulasuriya (6* off 13 deliveries) allowed them to play out 20 overs and score 65-9.
For India, pacer Renuka Singh picked up three wickets, with Sneh Rana and Rajeshwari Gayakwad picking up two each.
In reply, India opener Smriti was in a ballistic mood as she thrashed the Lankan bowlers all around, allowing India to chase down the target of 66 in just 8.3 overs and 36 minutes.
She ended the match with a huge six over long-on, which also took her to fifty off just 25 deliveries. Smriti stayed unbeaten on 51, which included six fours and three sixes.
“We should credit our bowlers. Our fielding unit was good from ball one, and we discussed that we should not give away easy runs. You have to read the wicket and accordingly place the fielders in the right positions.
“We read the wicket well and positioned fielders accordingly. We were not looking at the scoreboard but only decided on five-over targets. We never thought about what is the total on the board and batted accordingly,” India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who was at the other end when Smriti hit the winning six, said.
Sri Lanka skipper Athapaththu was visibly disappointed with the showing from her team.
“Tough day as a team. Not a good batting display in the finals. Really upset today. The next year we have the T20 World Cup and we have learnt a lot in this tournament. I am happy with my bowling unit. We have a couple of young players and I hope they do well as a batting unit. We don’t have a lot of experienced players but I hope the young players do well in the future,” she said.
While Renuka was the player of the match, Indian all-rounder Deepti Sharma claimed the player of the tournament award with 94 runs and 13 wickets.
“I am really very happy with the way we performed as a unit from the first game through to the final. I applied whatever we discussed. All the time I just backed my strength and focused on areas to bowl and that helped me in this tournament. It was a slow wicket and you have to wait for the ball. I worked hard on my batting before the tournament and that helped. This tournament gave us confidence,” she said after the match.
After the match, the Indian cricketers gave a lap of honour to the spectators, who supported them throughout.
But all-in-all, it was a routine job for them. Well, when they have done it seven times out of eight, why wouldn’t it be?
