India blows away Bangladesh with 10-wicket win to enter final

The Women in Blue will face the winner of semifinal two that will be played later in the day between host Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

India beat Bangladesh by 10 wickets on Friday at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium to reach the Women’s T20 Asia Cup final.

The Women in Blue will face the winner of the second semifinal later in the day between host Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Smriti Mandhana (55*, 39b) and Shafali Verma (26*, 28b) carried India to its fifth consecutive final in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup.

Bangladesh won the toss and chose to bat first. Renuka Singh Thakur and Radha Yadav picked three wickets apiece to restrict their opponents to a paltry 80 at the loss of eight wickets at the end of 20 overs.

Renuka dealt Bangladesh an early blow right in the first over after Dilara Akter hastily hunted for back-to-back sixes. She holed out to Uma Chetry at square leg, smartly brought into position by Harmanpreet Kaur.

The pacer picked up her second when Ishma Tanjim tried to cut over point, finding Tanuja Kanwer instead. Murshida Khatun became her third scalp, holing out to Shafali Verma after an unsuccessful pull shot over midwicket.

With her first ball of the match, Radha cleaned up Rumana Ahmed. In the final over, the left-arm tweaker bowled a double-wicket maiden after she removed Nigar Sultana - who was dismissed for the first time in this edition of the tournament- and Nahida Akter.

Pooja Vastrakar and Deepti Sharma also took a wicket each.

A target of 81 was too easy for an in-form opening pair and the Indian duo chased it down in 11 overs. (sportstar)