Daily Times

Islamabad: The Games are being held in Hangzhou, China Indian women’s cricket team won a gold medal in the Asian Games cricket competition after beating Sri Lanka in the final by 19 runs in Hangzhou, China on Monday.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur – who was playing her 100th match as a captain – guided her side to an unbeaten triumph in the Asian Games. On a turning wicket that was favouring bowlers, India’s Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues formed a crucial 73-run partnership and took their side over the line.

Mandhana contributed to 46 runs with five boundaries while her counterpart Rodrigues scored 42 off 40 with as many boundaries. Except those two, no other Indian batter managed to score in double digits and were ultimately restricted to 116-7 in 20 overs. In their chase, Sri Lanka had their fair share of struggles and were 14-3 in just 4.2 overs.

Hasini Parera with 25 off 22, Nakashi de Silva with 23 off 34 and Oshadi Ranasinghe with 19 off 26 were the three top scorers for the struggling Sri Lankan side which could only score 97-8 in the allocated 20 overs. Titas Sadhu was the pick of the bowlers for the winning side with her breathtaking spell of 3-6 in four overs, which included one maiden as well.

Earlier today, Pakistan women’s cricket team lost to Bangladesh in the bronze medal match. Batting first, Pakistan were restricted to only 64-9 in 20 overs with Aliya Riaz top-scoring with 17 runs. For Bangladesh, Shorna Akter was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-16 in four overs. Meanwhile, Sanjida Akter Meghla bagged 2 wickets and conceded 11 runs. Chasing the modest target, Bangladesh reached home in 18.2 overs for the loss of five wickets.

Shorna scored an unbeaten 14 runs in 33 balls to get her side over the line. Shamima Sultana and Shathi Rani scored 13 runs each. Nashra Sandhu bagged impressive figures of 3-10 in four overs.