🏏Women’s Asia Cup 2022: India W vs SL W - Finals 15/10/22🏏 - Page 5

Sri Lanka Women 65/9

India Women (8.3/20 ov, T:66) 71/2

IND Women won by 8 wickets (with 69 balls remaining)

Ranasinghe to Mandhana, SIX, swatted over wide long-on for a mighty maximum and buries the ghosts of Kuala Lumpur 10 June 2018. India are the Asia Cup Champions 2022. Smriti not only finished it off in style, but also notched up a well-deserved fifty. She has been timing it like a dream and gets a pat on the back from her skipper. The Indian girls rush out to the centre and pick up the stumps before jumping and hollering in joy. Time for some selfies now...

A warm hug between Mandhana and Harmanpreet as India lift their seventh Asia Cup! No wild celebrations from India apart from the youngsters running to the middle, as players from both teams shake hands. This has been as clinical a performance from India as it could have been. They are the champions, yes, but was any different expected?

The writing was pretty much on the wall once Sri Lanka were left in a disarray inside the powerplay after opting to bat. Renuka Singh continued her excellent run with the new ball and then a couple of run-outs helped India. From thereon it was a steep ask for Sri Lanka, who I thought, actually did well eventually to get to 65. But it was never going to be enough against this Indian batting line-up that was shored up.

The Indians now take a lap of the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium. There has been a sizeable turnout at the venue today and it's a lovely way to acknowledge the supporters that have turned up. The young Indian brigade, featuring Jemimah Rodrigues, also pause to pose and get clicked before resuming their walk.

Now the Indian players gather and pose for pictures with the entire groundstaff Lovely gesture.

India would have perhaps loved to see more from Shafali Verma, who continues to blow hot and cold. But make no mistake, this is a player you are going to see more of and rightly so. Rodrigues finishes as the leading run-scorer in the series with Harshitha Samarawickrama of Sri Lanka 15 runs behind on second. Deepti Sharma and Inoka Ranaweera share the bowling honours with 13 wickets apiece.

The winning India captain, Harmanpreet Kaur: "We should credit our bowlers. Our fielding unit was good from ball one and we discussed that we should not give away easy runs. You have to read the wicket and accordingly place the fielders in right positions. We read the wicket well and positions fielders accordingly. We were not looking at the scoreboard but only decided our five-over targets. We never thought about what is the total on the board and batted accordingly."

The runners-up cheque is handed over to Chamari Athapaththu, Sri Lanka captain: "Tough day as a team. Not a good batting display in the finals. Really upset today. The next year we have the T20 World Cup and we have learnt a lot in this tournament. I am happy with my bowling unit. We have couple of young players and I hope they do well as a batting unit. We don't have a lot of experienced players but I hope the young players do well in the future."

Next is the player of the tournament and that is Deepti Sharma for her all-round efforts: "I am really very happy. The way we did as a unit from the first game through to the final. I applied whatever we discussed. All the time I just back my strength and focus on areas to bowl and that helped me in this tournament. It was a slow wicket and you have to wait for the ball. I worked hard on my batting before the tournament and that helped. This tournament gave us confidence [as a team]."

First up. Renuka Singh has been adjudged the player of the match: "I am very happy because in the last few games I did not bowl well. I worked hard with the coach and it worked. I did not try anything different and just focused on my basics. My whole team supports me, including the captain and coach."

Harmanpreet has been handed over the trophy and she joins the rest of her team-mates, who are stood behind the board that reads CHAMPIONS. Meghna Singh, Kiran Navgire and Renuka Singh are in the centre with the trophy as the cheers begin. Both the pillars of this Indian team, Mandhana and Harmanpreet stand at either ends of the group. These are seeds of what you perhaps might see with this Indian unit as they build up to the T20 World Cup in South Africa next year.