An all-round India crushed Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the final match of the Women’s Asia Cup 2022 to clinch their seventh title at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
Tight bowling from Indian 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 thanks to Smriti Mandhana’s unbeaten 51 off 25 balls, reports news agency ANI.
Chasing 66, India scored nearly half of their target before spinner Inoka Ranaweera dismissed Shafali Verma (five off seven balls), with the score at 32-1.
One-down batter Jemimah Rodrigues was bowled by Kavisha Dilhari for just two.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur then joined Smriti, and the duo took India home without any further hiccups, finishing at 71-2 after 8.3 overs.
Smriti finished the match with a huge six while Harmanpreet was unbeaten on 11 at the other end.
Earlier, fiery power-play spell from pacer Renuka and top-notch performance by spinners Sneh Rana and Rajeshwari Gayakwad helped India restrict Sri Lanka to 65-9 in their 20 overs.
Electing to bat first, Sri Lanka was off to a horrendous start.
Renuka ran out skipper Chamari Athapaththu (six) before dismissing Harshitha Madavi (one) and Hasini Perera (0).
Another run out cut short the four-ball stay of Anushka Sanjeewani (two) and reduced Sri Lanka to 9-4 in 3.5 overs.
Sri Lanka could not catch a breather in the entire powerplay and were left stuttering at 16-5 with Nilakshi de Silva (five) and Oshadi Ranasinghe (0) at the crease.
Sri Lanka’s misery did not end there as Nilakshi (six) was deceived by spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad while attempting to cut. Sri Lanka was 18-6 at this point and someone had to intervene to stop this downward spiral.
Team India continued to dominate their opponents, this time with spin. Sneh Rana caught and bowled Malsha Shehani for a five-ball duck.
At the end of 10 overs, Sri Lanka was at 26-7.
Oshadi Ranasinghe was the next Sri Lankan batter to lose her wicket, getting bowled Rajeshwari Gaekwad, leaving Sri Lanka teetering on 32-8.
Inoka Ranaweera’s unbeaten 18 off 22 balls kept Sri Lanka from getting bundled out but could only take them to a meagre total, which the Indian batters chased down without breaking a sweat.
Earlier, hosts and defending champions Bangladesh failed to qualify for the semifinals, finishing fifth in the seven-team competition.