E-Paper
Sign In
India beat Sri Lanka to clinch T20 Women's Asia Cup title
Riding on brilliant half-centuries from openers Smriti Mandhana (59) and Shafali Verma (68), India made an imposing 183 for five. The Lankans were bowled out for 111
- PUBLISHED: Sun 13 Sept 2026, 9:59 PM UPDATED: Sun 13 Sept 2026, 11:49 PM
India beat Sri Lanka by 72 runs in the final to win the Women's T20 Asia Cup title at Dubai International Stadium on Sunday.
Riding on brilliant half-centuries from openers Smriti Mandhana (59) and Shafali Verma (68), India made an imposing 183 for five.
Recommended For You
In reply, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 111 in the final ball of their innings as spinners Shree Charani (4-1-20-4) and Deepti Sharma (4-0-19-3) delivered brilliant spells.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was delighted after India recorded their eighth Asian Cup title.
"We know they are a great team. But we played to our standards. We set high standards for ourselves and we wanted to keep matching them. Very happy the way we all performed," Kaur said before praising Mandhana and Verma for their outstanding partnership..
'Yes, the openers did a great job for us. The way Shafali and Smriti bat like they did. Great to see someone like Shafali take responsibility through the tournament with the bat and ball."
After electing to bat, India got off to a flying start. Mandhana and Verma, in their contrasting styles, put the Lankan attack to the sword on a wicket that assisted shot-making.
After a series of matches on slow pitches, the final saw a true wicket where the ball came nicely on to the bat and the two Indian openers made the most of it with some delightful shots, bringing loud cheers from the 16,400 fans that arrived at the stadium.
The 129-run opening partnership killed the game as a contest as India went on to post a big total despite a middle order wobble.
In reply, Sri Lanka lost opener Imesha Dulani in the first over, but skipper Chamari Athapaththu (36) and number three Vishmi Gunaratne (20) tried to revive the innings with an impressive 58-run partnership for the second wicket.
It was then that Charani, with her left-arm spin, and off-spinner Sharma, joined hands, putting on a masterclass of slow bowling to trigger a stunning Lankan batting collapse.
The emphatic win also was a sweet revenge for India, having lost the 2024 Asia Cup final to Sri Lanka.
Lankan skipper Athapaththu was gracious in defeat.
"This is the part of the game, one team wins one team loses. But end of the day we did not play our best game in all three departments. They played very well," the veteran batter said.
"But we will bounce back. Asian Games is coming up. And we will bounce back. We played really good cricket throughout the tournament, but today we struggled a little bit. It doesn't mean we are not good enough."
Brief scores: India Women 183/5 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 68, Smriti Mandhana 59; Mithali Ayodhya 1-33, Chamari Athapaththu 1-34) beat Sri Lanka Women 111/10 in 20 overs (Athapaththu 36, Nilakshika Silva 22; Shree Charani 4-20, Deepti Sharma 3-19) by 72 runs.
Rituraj Borkakoty is Sports Editor and has spent more than two decades writing on his sporting heroes. He also loves an underdog story, so if you have one, share it with him. He would love to bring it to life.