Asian Games 2023: India win gold in women's cricket, beat SL in final

India women clinched the first gold in cricket for India at the Asian Games 2023. Titas Sadhu with the ball and Smriti Mandhana with the bat shone for Women in Blue

The Indian women’s cricket team clinched gold in the women’s cricket as they defeated Sri Lanka in the final of the event held at the Pingfeng campus cricket field in Hangzhou, China by 19 runs. This is the maiden medal in the most popular sport in the country and it has come courtesy of the team led by Harmanpreet Kaur. 

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India women had claimed silver in the Commonwealth Games 2022 cricket event as well. 

Chasing the target of 117, Sri Lanka were not able to get off to a good start as Titas Sadhu picked two wickets in the third over. Soon after Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu departed off the bowling of Sadhu as well. 

Asian Games India schedule on September 26

Later on, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar and Deepti Sharma struck as well to break all the partnerships that threatened to develop among the Sri Lankan batters. The Sri Lanka team eventually could score only 97 runs at the loss of seven wickets in their 20 overs. 

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Earlier in the day, India scored 116/7 in their 20 overs. The Indian team faced an early hiccup in the form of Shafali Varma. But Smriti Mandhana (46) and Jemimah Rodrigues (42) added 73 for the second wicket. India though fell apart at the death, losing six wickets and scoring only 30 runs in their last six overs to finish at 116/7. 

For Sri Lanka, Priyadharshani, Ranaweera and Sugandika Kumari picked two wickets each. 

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