Indian women’s cricket team produced a fine bowling effort to beat Sri Lanka by 19 runs in a low-scoring thriller in Zhejiang. Indian women successfully defended 116 runs to win a historic gold medal in the ongoing Asian Games 2023. Oshadi Ranasinghe kept Sri Lanka in the chase for the longest time, but her wicket left Sri Lanka with too much to do, as they eventually finished on 97/8 in 20 overs.

Titas Sadhu gave India women a fairytale start with the ball, taking up three wickets in two overs and finishing with astonishing figures of 3/6 from four overs. Indian pacers were brilliant with the new ball and never allowed the opponents to score runs freely, also picking up wickets when needed.

India Women suffered another batting collapse and finished with a total of 116/7. From 89/2, India lost six wickets in the final five overs for just 27 runs. While the pitch was not ideal for batting, Women in Blue should have strived for a higher total. Though batting was difficult on this pitch, Smriti Mandhana (46) and Jemimah Rodrigues (42) fought valiantly against the Sri Lankan spinners. They put on a good solid partnership, scoring 73 runs for the second wicket. Other batters failed to score and departed cheaply.

In reply, Sri Lankan women had a poor start as they lost three quick wickets inside the powerplay overs. However, Hasini Perera (25) and Nilakshi de Silva (23) fought well and lifted their team with a 36-run partnership. Rajeshwari Gayakwad gave India a much-needed breakthrough through the wicket of Perera. India then tightened the screws in the last five overs to win the first-ever gold medal in cricket.