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Sri Lanka women’s cricket team in all smiles after securing a Silver medal at the Asian Games
The national women’s cricket team led by Chamari Athapaththu won the first medal for Sri Lanka in the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou, China when they finished runner-up to India in the women’s cricket final played on Monday.
A clinical display with the ball helped India Women clinch the gold medal as they came out on top against Sri Lanka in the final. Sri Lanka had to settle for the Silver.
On a surface that was not conducive for batting, India opted to bat first. Even though the openers hit a boundary each, to begin with, Shafali Verma struggled before getting stumped for 9 off 15. Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues then joined forces together to revive the innings. Mandhana hit a six and a four to round off the powerplay before the two batters continued to keep rotating the strike.
The run rate went past six only in the 13th over for India as the two batters laid down a platform for the middle order to cash in. However, Sri Lanka bounced back in style at the death as they kept striking at regular intervals to peg India back. The last five overs proved to be quite disastrous for India as they ended up adding only 27 runs to finish with 116. But on a track that was assisting a turn, this was always going to be a handful for Sri Lanka.
Chamari Athapaththu smashed a six and a four in the very first over to cause some jitters in the Indian camp but Titas Sadhu’s double-wicket maiden put India immediately in control. To make matters worse for Sri Lanka, Sadhu then removed Athapaththu as well in her next over as the Sri Lankan skipper miscued a shot. Hasini Perera tried to revive Sri Lanka with a flurry of boundaries but once she miscued a shot to depart for 25, Sri Lanka was under the pump. At 50/4 by the halfway mark, they needed a huge effort at the back end of the innings to clinch gold but India managed to remain on top and eventually close out the game in their favour.
In the play-off for the Bronze medal, Bangladesh beat Pakistan only for the second time in their history –by five wickets.
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