Women’s Asia Cup final: Dominant India face Sri Lanka; eye eighth title

Dambulla, July 27

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. 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), other 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 ©, 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 ©, 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 on Sunday.