Sri Lanka secured their first Women’s Asia Cup title win yesterday, defeating India with a clinical run-chase in front of their home crowd. This was also just the second time in their nine final appearances that India failed to win the Women’s Asia Cup. Previously, India had lost to Bangladesh by three wickets in the 2018 finals.
Samarawickrama was the Player of the Match in the Final, while Sri Lanka Skipper Chamari Athapaththu was the Player of the Tournament for her 304 runs and three wickets in the event.
Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bat first in the final. India got off to a positive start, but Sri Lanka struck back in the middle overs, with the wickets of Shafali Varma (16), Uma Chetry (9) and Harmanpreet (11). Contributions from Smriti Mandhana (60 from 47), Jemimah Rodrigues (29), and Richa Ghosh (30) helped India to 165/6.
In response, Sri Lanka had an early setback when Vishmi Gunaratne was run out for 1. However, Sri Lanka’s experienced skipper Chamari Athapaththu settled in and got good support from Harshita Samarawickrama. After a watchful start, getting only 28 runs in the first five overs, Sri Lanka took 16 off the sixth over.
The hosts made the most of this boost, and kept going at their target at a steady pace. Despite losing Athapaththu (61 from 43) in the 12th over, Samarawickrama (69 not out from 51) and Kavisha Dilhari (30 not out) helped Sri Lanka finish the game in the 19th over.
This win is another feather in the cap for Athapaththu’s Sri Lanka. They won the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier earlier in the year to qualify for the Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh. Prior to that, they had secured a 2-1 series win over South Africa away from home.