Captain Chamari Athapaththu’s 50 combined well with half-century of Harshitha Samarawickrama as a resilient Sri Lanka carved an eight-wicket win over defending champions India to bag their maiden women’s Asia Cup title at Dambulla on Sunday.
This is the second time in nine Asia Cup editions (WODI and W T20I) a cross formats that India have lost a final. The last time India lost the final was against Bangladesh in 2018 in Kuala Lumpur. Tasked with hunting down a strong target of 166, Sri Lanka served well by Athapaththu (61) and Samarawickrama (69 not out) and finished at 167 for two in 18.4 overs.
Athapaththu and Samarawickrama added 87 runs as Lankans always stayed ahead of their opponents. Athapaththu fetched her fifty in 33 balls, and Samarawickrama went past her mark in 43 balls and their shot selection too was vastly differing.
Athapaththu scored through almost every reachable place on the field, and her assault on left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar, who she biffed for two fours and six in her first over, was stunning. But at the other end, Samarawickrama clearly lacked the power of her senior but she offset that with clever placings, such as reverse sweeps off left-arm spinners Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav. But she picked up the tempo when Sri Lanka reached a rather safer zone, muscling a slog-swept six off Yadav over mid-wicket.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 167/2 in 18.4 overs (Samarawickrama 69*, Athapaththu 61, Dilhari 30*) beat India 165/6 (Mandhana 60, Ghosh 30, Dilhari 2-36) by eight wickets.
