Lankan lasses blown off by Indians
Sri Lanka’s intended culmination of their progress to claim the inaugural ACC Women’s Asia Cup title was comprehensively thwarted by India, who easily marched to snatch the regional title for the seventh time with an 8-wicket victory at Sylhet, Bangladesh yesterday.Electing to bat, Sri Lanka made a terrible start, only to crash down and salvage to post 65 for the loss of 9 wickets, a target India chased down using just 51 deliveries and losing a couple of wickets.
Sri Lanka had the consolation of claiming the wickets of opener Shafali Verma, who was flummoxed by a slow spinner of Inoka Ranaweera, to give wicketkeeper Anushka Sanjeewani ample time to claim a stump. Then followed the wicket of Jemimah Rodrigues, who stepped out to slog Kavisha Dilhari and got the stumps castled off.
Those were the only moments smiles were visible on the faces of Sri Lankan lasses, as opener Smriti Mandhana singlehandedly smashed an unbeaten knock of 51 off just 25 deliveries to see India through to their seventh Women’s Asia Cup title in all eight outings of the finals. Mandhana virtually gave very little room to the four Sri Lankan bowlers, finishing off with a strike rate of 204 while hitting six boundaries and three sixes.
Earlier in the competition, Sri Lanka were after four wins and two defeats – one each against yesterday’s opponents India and against Pakistan from the first round. But they performed the unthinkable defeating Pakistan by just 1 run in the second semi-final to qualify for the fifth final of Women’s Asia Cup.
Despite being energized and boosted after Thursday’s thrilling win, Sri Lanka could not hold on to their nerves yesterday. Skipper Chamari Athapaththu continued her dismal form by falling victim as the first wicket at eight, and Sri Lanka were four wickets down for a total of nine by the fourth over.
They could not resist the fast bowling charms of Renuka Singh, who claimed the wickets of opener and batter in-form Harshitha Samarawickrama and Hasini Perera in the third and fifth deliveries of the fourth over. Singh missed out a memorable hat-trick but not India, as they grouped up to run out Anushka Sanjeewani in the fourth ball of the same over in-between the two wickets Singh claimed.
Despite failure of the top order, tailenders Inoka Ranaweera and Achini Kulasuriya managed to safeguard the last wicket till the end of the 20th over, thus claiming the competition record of unbeaten 22-run stand for the 10th wicket. Ranaweera top scored for Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 18 off 22 balls, while Oshadi Ranasinghe followed in as the other batter to claim double figures with her patient knock of 13 off 20.
Sri Lanka’s bowling nemesis, Renuka Singh emerged the player of the match for her bowling heroics, where she claimed three wickets conceding just five runs in three overs. Allrounder Deepthi Sharma, who finished off the competition with 94 runs and 13 wickets, was named the player of the series.
The Women’s Asia Cup was introduced in 2004 and the first four installations were played as One Day Internationals in which India and Sri Lanka were featured in all four finals. After the competition was switched into T20Is, India qualified to all four finals, including yesterday’s and were beaten only by Bangladesh in Malaysia in 2016.
| SCORECARD | |
| Sri Lanka Chamari Athapaththu run out 06 Anushka Sanjeewani run out 02 Harshitha Samarawickrama c Ghosh b Singh 01 Nilakshi de Silva b Gayakwad 06 Hasini Perera c Mandhana b Singh 00 Kavisha Dilhari b Singh 01 Oshadi Ranasinghe b Gayakwad 13 Malsha Shehani c and b Rana 00 Sugandika Kumari b Rana 06 Inoka Ranaweera not out 18 Achini Kulasuriya not out 06 Extras (w6) 06 Total (9 wickets; 20 overs) 65 Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Athapaththu, 2.4), 2-9 (Samarawickrama, 3.3), 3-9 (Sanjeewani, 3.4), 4-9 (Perera, 3.5), 5-16 (Dilhari, 5.2), 6-18(de Silva, 6.6), 7-25 (Shehani, 8.3), 8-32 (Ranasinghe, 11.5), 9-43 (Kumari, 15.6) Bowling: Deepthi Sharma 4-0-7-0, Renuka Singh 3-1-5-3, Rajeshwari Gayakwad 4-0-16-2, Sneha Rana 4-0-13-2,Dayalan Hemalatha 3-0-8-0, Shafali Verma 2-0-16-0 India Shafali Verma st Sanjeewani b Ranaweera 05 |