Spinners and Renuka Thakur gave a stellar show in restricting Sri Lanka to 65/9, before Smriti Mandhana smashed an unbeaten 25-ball fifty to help India clinch their seventh Women’s Asia Cup title, outplaying Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the title clash at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
On a pitch which was tailor-made for the spinners to excel as the ball kept low and turned square, pacer Renuka Thakur shined with 3/5 in three overs while Rajeshwari Gayakwad (2/16) and Sneh Rana (2/13) had economical spells with the ball apart from Deepti Sharma conceding just seven runs in her four overs to keep Sri Lanka to 65/9.
In reply, Smriti played a stunning knock and finished it off in style with a six over long-on for an unbeaten 51 off 25 balls, laced with six fours and three sixes, to complete the chase with 11.3 overs to spare.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 65/9 in 20 overs (Inoka Ranaweera 18 not out, Oshadi Ranasinghe 13; Renuka Thakur 3/5, Sneh Rana 2/13) lost to India 71/2 in 8.3 overs (Smriti Mandhana 51 not out, Harmanpreet Kaur 11 not out; Inoka Ranaweera 1/17, Kavisha Dilhari 1/17) by eight wickets
