India women’s cricket team has won gold medal at Asian Games 2023 after defeating Sri Lanka women by 19 runs in the finals. The star of India’s was Titas Sadhu who bagged 4 wickets in four overs and conceded only 6 runs.
Batting first, India posted 116/7 runs on the board. It was a slow as has been the story throughout all cricket matches played at Asian Games 2023. Only Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues looked to play for a long, the former added 46 runs while the later 42 runs to India’s total.
For Sri Lanka, Inoka Ranaweera and Udeshika Prabodhani took two wickets each under the economy of 6 to restrict India under a chasable total. However, things went bad for Sri Lanka when they came to bat.
After having first two sensible overs, Sri Lanka lost 3 wickets in space one 1 run. All three wickets belonged to 18-year old Titas Sadhu. The most important wicket for her was Chamari Athapaththu who has been in good form in last few months.
From thereon, Sri Lanka could never find their rhythm back to the game. There was a small 36 runs partnership between Hasini Perera and Nilakshi de Silva but once Rajeshwari Gayakwad had dismissed Perera for 25 runs, India stayed ahead in the game.
Eventually, Sri Lanka fell 19 runs short despite playing all overs of the game. India remained undefeated throughout the tournament, playing three, winning two of them quite one-sidedly and while their match against Malaysia Women was washed out due to the rain.
Sri Lanka came into Asian Games 2023 on high confidence in T20I series after defeating England in their backyard. However, they couldn’t stand tall against a quality side like India. They defeated Pakistan by 6 wickets in the second semifinals to make their way into the finals.
Read More: India Women team won Gold in Asian Games 2023
Interestingly, Bangladesh women defeated Pakistan women for the third place in the tournament. Sri Lanka will content with their performance to win the silver medal. In Commonwealth Games 2022, India women won the silver medal, now, a year later, they have won the gold medal in Asian Games 2023.
The highest score in Asian Games 2023 was posted by Hong Kong women who put 202 runs on board against Mongolia women in the qualifier quarterfinals of the tournament. They won the match by 180 runs, dismissing the chasing side for just 22 runs.
The lowest score of the tournament was posted by Mongolia women who were bowled out for just 15 runs by Indonesia women in the first match of the tournament.
