India-W made way to their ninth straight final of the Women’s Asia Cup, owing to a stellar bowling performance by the bowlers. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led women defeated Bangladesh by 10 wickets in the first semifinal on Friday, July 26. The match saw Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana winning the toss and inviting the rivals to field first. Harmanpreet and Co., who registered a powerful 82-run win over Nepal in the last match, dominated the match right from the beginning.
Indian bowlers showed no mercy and went on to pick wickets from the first over. Renuka Singh went dismissed Dilara Akter on the fourth ball of the opening over. Singh then dismissed Murshid Khatun and Ishma Tanjim and completed her three-wicket haul. Later, Radha Yadav dismissed Nigar Sultana, Rumana Ahmed and Nahida Akter. Indian bowlers continued to dismantle Bangladesh batters and wrapped their total at just 80 runs with the loss of eight wickets.
In return, Indian openers including Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma chased the easy target in just 11 overs and helped the side reach ninth consecutive final. Mandhana completed her half century in 38 balls and remained unbeaten on 55 runs while Verma scored 26* runs. Earlier during the mid-innings break, Singh spoke about her performance and said, ” I was confident. I have been bowling with good rhythm coming into this game.”
She added, “Conditions were good and the mindset was pretty clear as it’s an important match. We prepared according to the conditions yesterday and executed it today. During the drinks break, discussed with Pooja how the pitch was behaving and what would be effective.” In the final, India will be up against the winners of the second semi-final between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.