SL stun India to win maiden Women’s Asia Cup title

DAMBULLA: Sri Lanka created history on Sunday, dethroning India to clinch their maiden Women’s T20 Asia Cup. Openers Chamari Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama’s fighting half-centuries and Kavisha Dilhari’s all-round heroics stood out as Sri Lanka cruised to an eight-wicket victory in front of a packed crowd in Dambulla.

Samarawickrama and Dilhari’s valuable contributions in the final once again highlighted a crucial point that Sri Lanka are not just dependent on their captain to deliver. They have now won 14 of the 17 T20Is this year and go into the T20 World Cup slated in October with massive confidence and pride from their performances.

Smriti Mandhana’s 60 and quickfire knocks from Richa Ghosh and Jemimah Rodrigues helped India post a competitive total of 165 for 6 but in the end, it proved inadequate. Things were quiet until the fifth over. Then, with Sri Lanka on 28 for 1, Athapaththu targeted the inexperienced left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar.

After lofting a short ball to deep square leg for six, she punished two full length deliveries for a four and a six to score 16 runs off the over and end the powerplay on 44 for 1. In the end, 29 of the Sri Lanka captain’s 61 runs came against left-arm spinners, at a strike rate of 170.58.

When Deepti bowled Athapaththu in the 12th over, the crowd was stunned to silence. Sri Lanka needed 72 runs from 48 balls and there was a chance of an Indian comeback. After getting set, scoring 29 off her first 27 balls, it was on Samarawickrama to take her side through and she did it in style. She brought out her A game with pull shots and slog sweeps to eventually top-score for Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 69.

Dilhari, a strong bottom-handed player, chipped in with an unbeaten 30 off 16 and sealed the victory with a six in the penultimate over. The duo shared a match-changing unbeaten 73 off 40 balls for the third wicket.