India Women's team Archives

Sri Lanka thump India to clinch maiden Women’s Asia Cup title

DAMBULLA: Chamari Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama showcased their exceptional batting prowess, guiding Sri Lanka to a resounding eight-wicket triumph over India in the final of the ACC Women’s Asia Cup 2024.

India posted 165-6 while batting first courtesy of Smriti Mandhana’s half-century, however, Athapaththu and Samarawickrama’s half-centuries helped Sri Lanka to lift their maiden Women’s Asia Cup title.

After opting to bat first, Shafali Verma and Mandhana gave a decent start with a 44-run opening stand before Kavisha Dilhari removed Verma.

Mandhana remained firm on her end while India lost two more wickets on the other end before Jemimah Rodrigues joined the settled batter.

Jemimah Rodrigues scored a quick 29 off 16 during the 41-run partnership with Mandhana, however, both batters fell in the same over, leaving their team reeling at 133-5.

Mandhana top-scored with a 47-ball 60, which featured ten boundaries.

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Richa Ghosh then struck a brilliant 30 from 14 balls with the help of four boundaries and one six to give a late push to India’s total as they scored 165-6 in 20 overs.

For Sri Lanka, Dilhari took two wickets while Athapaththu, Udeshika Prabodhani and Sachini Nisansala bagged one each.

While chasing, Sri Lanka lost Vishmi Gunaratne in the second over courtesy of a mix-up with Athapaththu.

However, the early blow did not matter much as Athapaththu and Samarawickrama raised a partnership of 87 for the second wicket.

Athapaththu played a 61-run knock from 43 balls with the help of nine boundaries and two sixes before Deepti Sharma castled her with 94 runs on the board.

Dilhari joined Samarawickrama and together they steered Sri Lanka to a comfortable victory with an unbeaten stand of 73 runs from 40 balls.

Samarawickrama top-scored with a 51-ball 69, which included six boundaries and two sixes, while Dilhari struck 30 off 16.

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India women register first-ever Test victory over Australia

India’s women’s cricket team cruised to their first-ever win against Australia in Test cricket on Sunday, beating the visitors by eight wickets in a one-off match in Mumbai.

India dominated play in the four-day match at the Wankhede Stadium, smashing 406 runs in the first innings to take a 187-run lead.

On the final day, Australia knocked out 261, with India’s bowlers earning five wickets for just 28 runs, including right arm off-break Sneh Rana — later awarded player of the match — taking two wickets in two balls.

Set a target of 75, India’s skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s team chased down the runs in dramatic play in just under 19 overs for two wickets.

For India’s women, it was their first Test victory against Australia after 11 attempts since 1977.

It follows India’s victory against England last week, also in Mumbai.

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Jay Shah, the Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary, celebrated the back-to-back Test wins.

“They conquered it with brilliance,” Shah posted on social media, praising skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. “History made today!”

India on December 16 thrashed England by 347 runs in another one-off women’s Test, their first-ever win at home against the rivals.

India’s victory margin against England was the largest by runs in women’s Test cricket and also their first Test win against England at home.

“Everything went very well for us,” Kaur told reporters on Sunday.

“Hopefully after these two wins we will get many more Test games in upcoming games.”

READ: Mitchell Starc surprised over the lack of pace by Pakistan bowlers

India women’s team strike cricket gold on debut at Asian Games 2023

HANGZHOU: India women’s team struck gold on their Asian Games cricket debut when they beat Sri Lanka by 19 runs in the final at Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field on Monday.

They had declined to enter any teams on the two previous occasions cricket had been played at the multi-sport event, at Guangzhou in 2010 and Incheon in 2014.

Batting first after winning the toss at the Zhejiang University for Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field, the India women’s team reached 116-7 with Smriti Mandhana (46) and Jemimah Rodrigues (42) putting on 73 for the second wicket.

Sri Lanka’s women’s team started the chase badly and they were reduced to 14-3 in the fifth over with right-arm seamer Titas Sadhu doing the damage with two wickets in her first four balls.

She finished with the remarkable figures of three wickets for six runs from her four overs.

Sri Lanka were always behind the run rate despite Hasini Perera looking to accelerate, hitting four fours and a six in a rapid 25.

When Nilakshi de Silva became the fifth wicket to fall after a battling 23, Sri Lanka were 78-3 and still needed 39 with 23 balls remaining.

Two more wickets saw them need a near-impossible 25 off the last over and India women’s team celebrated as they finished on 97-8 off their 20 overs.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Women’s cricket team lost to the Bangladesh women’s team by five wickets in the third-place match for the bronze medal at the Asian Games

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India captain defends controversial run-out to seal England sweep

LONDON: India captain Harmanpreet Kaur insisted her side had committed no “crime” after sealing victory over England at Lord’s on Saturday with a run-out at the non-striker’s end.

England were eyeing a remarkable win in the third women’s one-day international when India bowler Deepti Sharma ran out non-striker Charlie Dean, who was well out of her ground.

Dean’s 47, batting at number nine, had given England, who were 53-6, hope of chasing down a target of 170. Instead they were bowled out for 153 as India won by 16 runs to complete a 3-0 series sweep.

An emotional Dean broke down in tears when her dismissal was confirmed before sportingly shaking hands with her opponents.

Despite being allowed under cricket’s rules, running out a non-striker backing up has long been regarded as unsporting by many within the game.

But it was only this week the International Cricket Council reiterated the dismissal, known as a “Mankad” after India’s Vinoo Mankad, who ran out Australia batsman Bill Brown backing up in a 1948 Test in Sydney, was completely legitimate.

This was both teams’ first match at Lord’s since England beat India in the 2017 Women’s World Cup final.

And while some boos were heard following Dean’s dismissal, Kaur was adamant Sharma had done nothing to overshadow either the victory or India pace great Jhulan Goswami’s last match before international retirement.

“Today whatever we have done I don’t think it was any crime, it is part of the game and it is an ICC rule and I think we just need to back our player,” Kaur said.

“I don’t think (Sharma) has done something wrong and we just need to back her.”

England seamer Kate Cross said she would never take a wicket in this way but added: “I think it’s a dismissal that’s always going to divide opinion. That’s all that’s ever going to get said about it: some people are going to like it, some people aren’t.

“Deepti chose to dismiss Charlie Dean that way. I’m more disappointed for Charlie Dean that she couldn’t get a fifty at Lord’s today because she looked set to do that.

“If we’re looking at the real positives, then maybe that’s the only way they could have got Deano out today.”

READ: PEMRA refrains TV channels from reporting live location of English team