IND-W clinch a historic Gold medal at the Asian Games

Playing the Asian Games for the first time, the Indian women’s cricket team clinched a historic gold medal at the marquee event. Locking horns against Sri Lanka in the final at Hangzhou, China, India handed a 19-run defeat to the island nation. 

Winning the toss and electing to bat first, India posted a respectable 116/7 in 20 overs, riding on the match-winning partnership of 73 runs between Smriti Mandhana (46) and Jemimah Rodrigues for the second wicket. While all eyes would have been on the likes of Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur before the tournament, Jemimah (42) stole the limelight as she top-scored in the Asian Games with 109 runs from three matches at a strike rate of 130.  

In reply, Sri Lanka were reduced to 97/8 in 20 overs as they fell 19 runs shy of securing the coveted gold medal. Ending up as the second-best team in the competition, Sri Lanka bagged silver. Hasini Perera (25) was the highest scorer for Sri Lanka and received support from Nilakshi de Silva (23) and Oshadi Ranasinghe (19), albeit only to some extent. India’s 18-year-old Titas Sadhu, playing just her second T20I, wreaked havoc with the ball as she snapped 3/6 in four overs, including one maiden. 

The Women in Blue, who already have seven Asia Cups to their credit, continue to rule the roost in Asia with a gold medal in the Asian Games.