Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar leave priceless messages for Harmanpreet-led side as IND win Asia Cup for record 7th time
It was sheer and utter dominance from India as they demolished Sri Lanka in the Women’s Asia Cup final on Saturday, beating them by eight wickets at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet to claim the trophy for the record seventh time in history in eight editions.
The only time they missed was in 2018, but the ghosts Kuala Lampur has now been buried with a dominating title win, where they had lost just one match in their campaign. Moments after the win, India cricketing greats, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, left priceless messages for the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side.
Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu was delighted to have won the toss, but that was the last time she smiled. Opting to bat first, the skipper departed in the third over, and from there on Sri Lanka went into a self-destruction mode, losing wickets in clumsy fashion. They managed just 65 runs for nine wickets in 20 overs – the lowest ever total batting first in the history of Women’s Asia Cup.
Renuka Singh picked three wickets for just five runs while Gayakwad and Sneh Rana picked two apiece.
In response, India went two down in the fifth over, but half the job was already done by Smriti Mandhana, whose unbeaten 51 helped India complete the chase in just 8.3 overs.
“We clinch the Asia Cup once again! Many congratulations to our women’s team for winning the Asia Cup for a record 7th time! #AsiaCup2022Final,” Sachin tweeted.
“We should give credit to the bowlers and the fielding unit was very good today from ball one. We didn’t want to give them easy runs as every ball is important, proud of the way we performed today. You gotta read the wicket and place the field accordingly. We did that very well and placed the fielders accordingly and that really helped us. We were not looking at the scoreboard and we were just looking at the short targets we had for ourselves and it all worked out well,” said captain Harmanpreet after the match.