Sri Lanka’s women won the Asian Games cricket silver medal on Tuesday, beaten by 147 runs by India in the gold-medal match at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin. Set 217, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 69 in 15.4 overs, according to ESPNcricinfo’s scorecard.
India, who won the toss and batted, retained the title they took at Hangzhou in 2023. It was India’s first gold of this edition of the Games.
India 216 for 3
Smriti Mandhana made 79 from 45 balls with five fours and seven sixes, sharing an opening stand of 99 with Shafali Verma, who fell for 48 from 29 two balls short of the ten-over mark. Richa Ghosh finished unbeaten on 49 from 22 balls, striking six fours and three sixes as India took 53 from the last three overs. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur contributed 19.
Sri Lanka’s bowlers conceded at 10.80 an over and took three wickets between them: Chamudi Praboda 1 for 34, Kavisha Dilhari 1 for 35 and Sugandika Kumari 1 for 37, each from four overs. Mithali Ayodhya went for 42 from three overs and Kawya Kavindi 40 from three, with six wides between them. Athapaththu bowled two overs for 27.
Sri Lanka 69 all out
The chase never began. Shafali Verma, bowling off-spin, removed both openers inside the powerplay — Imesha Dulani stumped for 3, Hasini Perera caught for 0 — and finished with 2 for 3 from two overs.
Athapaththu top-scored with 29 from 21 balls, five fours, before edging a wide ball to long off. Her dismissal left Sri Lanka 43 for 3 in the seventh over. They lost their last seven wickets for 26 runs.
Deepti Sharma returned 3 for 6 from four overs, one of them a maiden. Shreyanka Patil took 2 for 9 and Shree Charani 2 for 13. Only three Sri Lankan batters reached double figures — Athapaththu, wicketkeeper Kaushini Nuthyangana with 14, and Dilhari with 11. Four were out for nought or one.
A second final lost to India in nine days
The defeat follows the Women’s Asia Cup final in Dubai on 13 September, which India won by 72 runs. The margin here was more than twice as large.
Sri Lanka had reached the final comfortably, beating Malaysia in the quarter-final and Pakistan by eight wickets in the semi-final, where Athapaththu made 83 not out. Against India, the head-to-head record held: the sides have now met 33 times in T20 internationals, India winning 27.
The match was the 3,026th women’s T20 international. Saleema Imtiaz of Pakistan and Shathira Jakir of Bangladesh stood as umpires, with Shivani Mishra of Qatar as television umpire and Supriya Das of Bangladesh as match referee.
Not reported
The scorecard does not record whether any Sri Lankan player was carrying an injury, and no team statement had been issued at the time of writing.