India Women’s Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana celebrate after winning the Semi-Final match against Bangladesh Women’s by 10 wickets in the Womens Asia Cup T20, 2024, at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla on Friday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Defending champions India will look to translate their overwhelming dominance in the Women’s Asia Cup to a record-extending eighth title while facing a feisty Sri Lanka in the final here on Sunday.

India have lorded over their opponents in this continental showpiece – hammering Pakistan by seven wickets and followed it up with facile wins over UAE (78 runs), Nepal (82 runs), and Bangladesh (10 wickets).

India’s top-order batters and bowlers fired in tandem, not giving their rivals even an iota of chance to mount a fight.

Openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma have scored well in excess of 100 runs and at a healthy strike-rate of over 140, giving India solidity and quick starts alike at the top.

But the management could be even more pleased with the way bowlers responded to the challenge, particularly Deepti Sharma and Renuka Singh.

Deepti is the leading wicket-taker of this event with nine wickets and Renuka is third on the chart with seven scalps.

But their economy rate across four matches has been brilliant – 4.37 and 4.31 respectively. It ensured that the opposition batters have no breathing space at the top or in the middle-overs, phases when Renuka and Deepti often operate.

It has also aided other bowlers, as batters often look for relief shots against them, and left-arm spinner Radha Yadav offers a prime example.

She has taken six wickets at an economy of 5.5, while feeding on the success of her senior colleagues’ success.

While there is no palpable worry in the Indian camp, they may just be a tad concerned about the lack of batting time for skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues.

Harmanpreet has batted just twice in three matches, even though she made a riveting 66 in one of them, while Rodrigues is yet to hit the top gear here in three innings.

The think tank will hope that these experienced campaigners can find their range, if the situation comes to that.

“They might not have got that much time in the middle, but everyone is working hard at nets, and I am sure they will fire when the time comes,” wicketkeeper batter Richa Ghosh had said.

On the other hand, Sri Lanka too are undefeated in this event and they also have scored the biggest victory in terms of runs – a 144-run toweling of Malaysia in the group stage.

The primary reason behind their supremacy is the fine form of skipper Chamari Athapathuthu, the leading run-scorer here with 243 runs.

But it also has a bleaker side to it. Apart from Athapathuthu none of their batters have scored over 100 runs with Rushmi Gunarathne a distant second for them with 91 runs.

Their bowling too offers a similar story. Except off-spinner Kavisha Dilhari (7 wickets, economy 5.35), others Lankan bowlers have failed to make an impact as yet.

In that context, the Islanders will require a quick all-round improvement against a settled India to have a smidgeon of chance even to stretch them.

Teams (from): India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan.

Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Anushka Sanjeewani, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Hasini Perera, Ama Kanchana, Udeshika Prabodani, Vishmi Gunarathne, Kawya Kavindi, Inoshi Priyadarshani, Sugandika Kumari, Achini Kulasooriya, Kaveesha Dilhari, Nilakshi De Silva, Sachini Nisansala, Shashini Gimhani.

Match starts at: 3 PM IST.

India Women skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (4th right) with other skippers of participating nations poses for photographs ahead of the Women’s Asia Cup T20 tournament, in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, on July 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Seeking to continue their domination over teams in the sub-continent, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday said they are using the Women’s Asia Cup as a platform to prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

The continental tournament, to held in the T20 format this year, begins here from Friday with India taking on traditional rivals Pakistan, while the World Cup will be hosted by Bangladesh later this year.

Since the tournament’s inception in 2004, India have ruled the roost, clinching the trophy in all the seven editions (T20Is and ODIs combined).

“This tournament is very important for all of us because we give equal respect to this tournament and want to improve at the Asian as well as at the world level.

“So our focus will remain same as we prepare for the T20 World Cup or any other World Cup. Each and every game is important for us and we will try to give our best,” Harmanpreet said at the captains’ press conference.

“The challenge will be to keep doing the right things which we have done in the past Asia Cups, keep playing the same type of cricket, and keep dominating other teams and enjoy our cricket,” she added.

The Harmanpreet-led side is the team to beat going into this iteration of the Asia Cup.

India are the most successful team in the Women’s Asia Cup T20 with 17 wins in 20 matches. They beat Bangladesh in the final of the last edition in 2022.

India’s record against Pakistan, who they will face in their campaign opener, has also been stellar in the shortest format, with 11 wins against three defeats in 14 matches so far.

“We always enjoy playing against Pakistan but each and every team is important. Whenever we go and play, we always want to play good cricket and we will follow the same method,” Harmanpreet said on the eve of their opener.

Pakistan skipper Nida Dar knows India’s strength and is looking to learn valuable lessons from their neighbours.

“We just wanted to play against India because we had some good experiences and the way they are playing is great. Their approach in T20 is great, we have seen their approach. So this series is very important as at least we can learn from them,” Dar said.

Besides India and Pakistan, other participating teams in this edition of the tournament are hosts Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.