‘China ki zameen se Gold aya hai’ – Fans react as India Women beat Sri Lanka by 19 runs to win Gold in Asian Games 2023

In the gold-medal match between India and Sri Lanka, the Women In Blue were looking to recreate the Men’s Asia Cup 2023 glory. On the other hand, the Lankan Lionesses were looking to avenge their men. Meanwhile, in this game, the Women’s Asia Cup holders won the toss and elected to bat first. The wicket was extremely difficult to bat on, especially for new batters.

With the bat, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side had a poor start. Shafali Varma (9 off 15 balls) was stumped by Anushka Sanjeewani off Sugnadika Kumari. At 16/1, the likes of vice-captain Smirti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues put together 73 runs for the second wicket. They looked like getting the team past 120-130. However, apart from them, no player managed to get past double figures. From 89/1, the team was reduced to 116/7.

For the Lankans, Udeshika Prabodhani, Kumari, and Inoka Ranaweera took two wickets each.

India defends its lowest total in their history

In reply, the island nation-based side had a poor start as they lost three wickets for 14 runs. All these wickets were picked by Titas Sadhu, the graduate of the U19 World Cup 2023 winning campaign early this year. At this stage, Hasini Perera and Nilakshi de Silva put together 37 runs for the fourth wicket.

With a few boundaries in between, both batters kept their side in the game. However, after getting hit for a four and a six, Rajeshwari Gaekwad took her revenge as she took out Perera in the 10th over. After this, the Indian bowlers managed to keep the run flow in check and increased the required run rate and problems for their opposition.

Sadhu, who took the first three wickets, bowled the most economical spell in women’s cricket. She bowled out her quota of four overs and conceded only six runs, equalling Radha Yadav’s 4-2-6-3 against West Indies in 2019. Meanwhile, in the end, India managed to win the Gold Medal by 19 runs. The Lankans were restricted to 97/8

This is how Twitter reacted