India Women Win Asian Games Gold by 147 Runs, After Two Records in the Semi Final
Smriti Mandhana made 79 in the final against Sri Lanka. In the semi final she became the leading run scorer in women's T20 internationals, and Shafali Verma made a 49 ball hundred.
India's women retained their Asian Games title on 22 September, beating Sri Lanka by 147 runs in the gold medal match at Nisshin, Japan. It was India's first gold medal of the Games.
The final
| | Score | |---|---| | India | 216/3 (20 overs) | | Sri Lanka | 69 all out (15.4 overs) |
Smriti Mandhana made 79 from 45 balls and India passed 200 for the loss of only three wickets. Sri Lanka never got near the rate. Deepti Sharma took 3/6 from her four overs, and the spinners shared the rest as Sri Lanka were bowled out inside 16 overs.
The semi final: two records in one innings
India reached the final by beating Bangladesh by 114 runs, and two of their batters made history in the same innings.
Shafali Verma scored 100 from 49 balls, with nine sixes. It was her first hundred in T20 internationals and the first century by any woman in the Asian Games cricket competition.
At the other end, Mandhana needed seven runs to become the leading run scorer in women's T20 internationals. She passed Suzie Bates of New Zealand early in the innings and went on to 37 from 19 balls. That took her to 4,788 runs at the end of the innings.
The rest of the tournament
India, captained by Harmanpreet Kaur, beat Japan in their quarter final. Eight teams took part, from 17 to 22 September.
- Gold: India
- Silver: Sri Lanka
- Bronze: Pakistan, who beat Bangladesh by 31 runs
Elsewhere at the Games
The men's side followed them to gold eleven days later, beating Pakistan by 19 runs in the final. Our women's predictions page covers women's internationals as fixtures are confirmed.