Smriti Mandhana scored 79 off 45 balls to anchor India’s innings as the team posted 216 for three, the highest total in women’s cricket at the Asian Games, according to a report from Reuters. India then dismissed Sri Lanka for 69 in 15.4 overs, with Deepti Sharma claiming three wickets for six runs while Shafali Verma, Shree Charani and Shreyanka Patil took two apiece. The result marked a repeat of the 2023 final and delivered India’s first gold medal of the Aichi-Nagoya Games, match reports from the Associated Press showed.
Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bat, setting up an opening stand of 99 in 10 overs between Mandhana and Shafali Verma, who made 48 off 29 deliveries before falling to a reverse sweep, a Reuters assessment found. Richa Ghosh then struck an unbeaten 49 off 22 balls, including three sixes and six fours, to propel the total past 200 in the final over that yielded 25 runs. Mandhana’s knock, featuring seven sixes and five fours, also took her past 11,000 international runs, making her the first woman to reach the milestone according to data compiled by Olympics.com.
Sri Lanka’s chase never gained momentum, with captain Chamari Athapaththu top-scoring on 29 off 21 balls before the innings folded with the last eight wickets falling for 26 runs, Al Jazeera reported citing AFP. The spinners maintained tight lines, restricting Sri Lanka well below the target in a performance that echoed India’s dominance throughout the tournament. Pakistan earlier secured the bronze medal by defeating Bangladesh by 31 runs in the third-place playoff, Wikipedia figures drawn from official records confirm.
The victory extended India’s unbeaten run in the competition, where the side had earlier defeated Bangladesh by 114 runs in the semifinal with Verma scoring a century, an Olympics.com match summary stated. Tournament statistics show India finished with three wins from three matches while Sri Lanka settled for silver after two victories. The event featured eight teams playing in a T20 format at venues in Nisshin, Japan, between Sept. 17 and 22.
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur told reporters after the match that the team was pleased to open their gold medal account. “We’re really happy that we have opened the gate now, and hopefully we’ll see many more golds coming up for India,” she said in comments carried by Reuters. The win reaffirmed the side’s continental supremacy three years after claiming the title at Hangzhou, according to coverage in The Hindu.
