By beating India by eight wickets, Sri Lanka have won their first ever women’s Asia cup 2024 at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium. In the first innings after winning the toss, Smriti Mandhana (60) and Richa Ghosh (30) shinned as Indian scored 165 for six in front of the host country Sri Lanka.
Mandhana, however, made sure that she was not going anywhere anytime soon as he went on to make an unbeaten half century off just 47 balls having hit 10 fours and a six.
India were cruising at 44/0 at the end of powerplay but Srilanka bowlers led by Kavisha Dilhari (2/36) staged a big fight back.
At the dying minutes of this clash Ghosh managed a useful knock of four fours and one six fromn fourteen balls to take team India to past 150-runs mark.
Ultimately, it was a brilliant chase masterminded by Chamari Athapaththu, Harshita Samarawickrama and Kavisha Dilhari that enabled onlankans win within nineteen overs
Sri Lanka were under pressure when Athapaththu got out for sixty one runs having faced twelve overs. However Harshita could be forgiven for putting down two catches in the field because she compensated with her counter attacking batting which saw her making fifty plus runs in quick time. The match was sealed by Dilhari’s lusty blows alongside Harshita cameos while playing before capacity Dambulla crowd.
Harshita remained unbeaten at 50-ball 69 which included two sixes and six fours. Dilhari remained not out at 16-ball 30.
Playing XIs
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shefali Verma, Uma Chetry, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Tanuja Kanwar, Renuka Thakur Singh
Sri Lanka: Vishmi Gunaratne, Chamari Athapaththu(c), Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani(w), Hasini Perera, Sugandika Kumari, Inoshi Priyadharshani, Udeshika Prabodhani, Sachini Nisansala
