By winning the title for the seventh time, the Indian team will come down to establish the kingship again.
The Indian team, who have registered most one-sided wins in most matches so far, will look to reclaim their reigns in the continental competition by clinching the title for a record seventh time in the final of the Women’s Asia Cup cricket tournament to be held against Sri Lanka here on Saturday. In this competition, India got a chance to try their second-class players. This also showed the strength of the Indian team as they easily made it to the final despite skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana not contributing much.
Such was the impact of the Indian team that captain Harmanpreet played only four matches in which he scored 81 runs and faced 72 balls. Even Mandhana, who took the responsibility of captaincy in three matches, did not play in a match. He also did not contribute much from his side. The biggest achievement of the tournament was that the junior players performed well under pressure conditions. Three young players – 18-year-old Shefali Verma (161 runs and three wickets), 22-year-old Jemima Rodrigues (215 runs) and 25-year-old Deepti Sharma (94 runs and 13 wickets) took the responsibility. India’s only defeat in the tournament came from arch-rivals Pakistan. India did not get a chance to take revenge on Pakistan as Sri Lanka showed them the way out in the semi-finals.
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As far as the final is concerned, India has the upper hand as only one batsman from Sri Lanka, Oshadi Ranasinghe, has scored runs at a strike rate of more than 100. Not only this, only two of his batsmen Harshita Madavi (201 runs) and Nilakshi de Silva (124 runs) have scored more than 100 runs in the tournament so far. Even his famous batsman Chamari Atapattu has been able to score only 96 runs and his strike rate is 85. In the bowling, only one bowler left arm spinner Inoka Ranvira (12 wickets) has been able to make an impact. In such a situation, it will be very difficult for Sri Lanka to compete with a team like India. However, four years ago in Malaysia, Bangladesh had won the title by defeating India in a vicious circle.
Sri Lanka’s spirits will be high after defeating Pakistan in the semi-finals but the final is going to be a tough test for them. Among the Indian players, Jemima has shown consistency in her game while Deepti has performed responsibly with both batting and bowling. Shefali, who has been in poor form before the tournament, has regained her momentum. His leg break bowling has also proved useful. India are the title contenders because their spin attack is very strong with Deepti, Rajeshwari Gaikwad and Sneh Rana performing well so far. The conditions are anyway favorable to the spinners and in such a situation, the Indian team will leave no stone unturned in the final.Batting first, India scored 150 runs in the round-robin match between these two teams and then bowled out Sri Lanka for 109 runs.
Teams are as follows
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana, Shefali Verma, S Meghna, Jemima Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Daylan Hemlata, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gaikwad, Renuka Thakur, Meghna Singh, Kiran Navgire and Pooja Vastrakar. Sri Lanka: Chamari Atapattu (Captain), Nilakshi de Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Achini Kulsuriya, Sugandha Kumari, Harshita Samarawickrama, Madhusika Metthananda, Hasini Perera, Odhadi Ranasinghe, Inoka Ranvira, Anoushka Sanjeevani, Kaushani Nuthyangana, Malsha Shehani and Malasha. The match will start at 1 pm Indian time.
