India trounce Sri Lanka to win Women’s Asia Cup

India breezed to an eight-wicket win against Sri Lanka, to win the Women’s Asia Cup for a seventh time, at Sylhet today. 

Opener Smriti Mandhana cracked a 25-ball half century, including six boundaries and three sixes, and despite losing the wickets of Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues cheaply, India Women comfortably reached the target with 69 balls to spare.  

Sri Lanka Women were restricted to 65 for 9 in their 20 overs after captain Chamari Atapattu opted to bat first. 

Sri Lanka’s top order were guilty of throwing their wickets away, with Atapattu run out in the third over of the innings, and Harshitha Samarawickrama and Hasini Perera caught in the following over. 

In between the dismissals of Samarawickrama and Perera, Anuksha Sanjeewani was run out, as Sri Lanka lost three wickets in three balls and slumped to 9 for 4. 

Kavisha Dilhari was bowled in the final over of the powerplay, and the situation worsened for Sri Lanka with Nilakshi de Silva dismissed in the next over, the score reading 18 for 6. 

Oshadi Ranasinghe contributed 13, and Inoka Ranaweera 18, with two boundaries off the final over, but the wickets kept tumbling right through the rest of the innings, meaning Sri Lanka could not post a competitive score.