Women’s Asia Cup 2024: Sri Lanka’s first title win marks heartbreaking defeat for India
In Sunday’s final at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Sri Lanka defeated India by eight wickets to win the Women’s Asia Cup for the first time.
India made the brilliant decision to bat first, and Mandhana and Shafali Verma quickly established a solid partnership. Richa Ghosh scored 30 off 14 balls and Mandhana scored 60 off 47 balls for India. In addition to them, Jemimah Rodrigues registered a score of 29. Kavisha Dilhari took two wickets for Sri Lanka, while Sachini Nisansala and Chamari Athapaththu each claimed one wicket.
Chasing 166, Sri Lanka showed unwavering composure as they reached the target in 18.4 overs, scoring 167/2 and winning with eight balls remaining.
India has dominated the opposing team in all three departments this tournament by playing an attacking style of cricket. Players like Harmanpreet and Richa Ghosh have demonstrated their ability to hit for power, and the middle order has also performed admirably. The top order has been firing on all cylinders. In the semi-final, India’s merciless performance was highlighted by Smriti Mandhana’s quick fifty, undefeated, and Renuka Singh’s three-wicket burst as the reigning champions crushed Bangladesh by ten wickets.
On the other hand, in the semi-final match, Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by a margin of three wickets. With 304 runs, Chamari Athapaththu is the event’s highest run scorer. She almost single-handedly led the Lankans to within 141 runs with a well-paced 63 off 48 balls (9×4, 1×6). The unbeaten 24 (22b, 1×4, 1×6) of Anushka Sanjeevani and her fifty helped Lanka reach 141 for 7 in 19.5 overs.
Before the Asia Cup 2024 finals, India had a dominant head-to-head record in Twenty20 Internationals against Sri Lanka. India has won 19 of the 24 matches that they have played against each other, Sri Lanka has won 4, and one match has ended in a draw.
Renuka is ranked third on the leaderboard with seven wickets, while Deepti Sharma of India is the top wicket-taker of the tournament with nine.
However, they have had an excellent economy rate in each of the last four games (4.37 and 4.31, respectively). It made sure that the opposition batsmen, who frequently use Renuka and Deepti, had little room to breathe at the top of the over or in the middle of the over.
With Rushmi Gunarathne trailing far behind with 91 runs, Sri Lanka’s other batters have all failed to score more than 100 runs, hence the team significantly depends on Athapaththu in the batting department. Their over-reliance on one bowler is a similar story that their bowling department is experiencing aside from Kavisha Dilh, the off-spinner.
