Sri Lanka clinch maiden Women’s Asia Cup title

Sri Lanka created history on Sunday, beating India with a clinical run-chase & clinch their maiden Women's T20 Asia Cup in front of home fans in Dambulla. Openers Chamari Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama's fighting half-centuries and Kavisha Dilhari's all-round heroics stood out as Sri Lanka cruised to an eight-wicket victory. This was also just the second time in their nine final appearances that India failed to win the Women's Asia Cup.

This was India's first-ever loss to Sri Lanka in a Women's Asia Cup match and what a game and occasion for the hosts to do it against the seven-time champions. Sri Lanka have been runners-up five times in the Women's Asia Cup, four times in the ODI format and once in T20s and lost all those finals against India. 

Tasked with hunting down a strong target of 166, Sri Lanka served well by Athapaththu (61b, 43b, 9x4, 2x6) and Samarawickrama (69 not out, 51b, 6x4, 2x6) and finished at 167 for two in 18.4 overs.

Athapaththu and Samarawickrama added 87 runs as Lankans always stayed ahead of their opponents.The stand for the for the second wicket was also of contrasts as Samarawickra was the yin to the yang of her aggressive leader.

Samarawickrama was the Player of the Match in the Final, while Chamari Athapaththu was the Player of the Tournament for her 304 runs and three wickets in the event.

Brief Scores: India 165/6 in 20 overs (Smriti Mandhana 60, Jemimah Rodgrigues 29, Richa Ghosh 30; Kavisha Dilhari 2/36) lost to Sri Lanka 167/2 in 18.4 overs (Chamari Athapaththu 61, Harshitha Samarawickrama 69*, Kavisha Dilhari 30*; Deepti Sharma 1/30) by 8 wickets.