Sri Lanka stun sluggish India to win maiden Women's Asia Cup title by eight wickets

Add as a preferred source on Google

Sri Lanka Women on Sunday (July 28) won their maiden Women's Asia Cup 2024 final by beating India Women by eight wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla. Sri Lanka chased down a 166-run target with eight wickets and eight balls to spare.

Harshitha Samarawickrama and Chamari Athapaththu shined with the bat for Sri Lanka amid sluggish fielding efforts from India. Both the batters hit a fifty each to win the Women's Asia Cup 2024 title without losing a single game.

India Women had won the continental showpiece event seven times in the past, and were the favourites to clinch their record-extending eighth title, but were outplayed by the hosts.

Several fielding errors haunted India Women later in the match as Harshitha Samarawickrama played the most crucial innings of her career. The southpaw scored unbeaten 69 runs off just 51 balls. The innings consisted of six fours and two sixes.

Earlier, captain Chamari Athapaththu played an attacking knock despite losing her opening partner in the second over of the match. Her team kept the tempo up throughout the record run-chase - highest by Sri Lanka Women - and the support of fans only gave them the extra boost.

Earlier, India Women won the toss and opted to bat first, scoring 165/6 in 20 overs. Smriti Mandhana top-scored for the team with 60 off 47, but the likes of Shafali Verma (16), Uma Chetry (9), and Harmanpreet Kaur (11) failed.

Jemimah Rodrigues (29 off 16), and Richa Ghosh (30 off 14) chipped in with handy contributions to help India set a competitive target which did not prove to be enough in the end.

Sri Lanka Women were ecstatic after winning their first-ever Asia Cup title, and so were the thousands of home fans in the stadium. Tears were seen coming out of the eyes of Chamari Athapaththu.

On the other hand, India Women players walked back to their dugout with their heads and shoulders down. This was only for the second in their nine attempts that the Women in Blue failed to win the Asia Cup trophy.