Indian Women’s Cricket Team wins first-ever gold in Asian Games 2023

Indian Cricket Women’s Team has created history in China after winning a historic gold medal in the Asian Games 2023 after defeating Sri Lankan Women’s Cricket Team by 19 runs in a rather low-scoring match in the final. This is also Indian Women’s Team’s very first appearance in Asian Games cricket event in spite of Women’s cricket being featured earlier in the 2010 and 2014 games which was won by Pakistan both the times.

Batting first, India started off well in spite of losing Shefali Verma early and saw Smriti Mandhana and Jemima Rodrigues scoring 46 and 42 respectively building a good 73 run partnership for the second wicket. However, once Smriti Mandhana was dismissed, the India batting lineup collapsed after losing 6 wickets for just 27 runs in the last 5 overs, managing to somehow reach 116/7 at the end of their 20 overs.

While, the target seemed small, the pitch and the circumstances were such that there was still hope that the Indian team could overcome the Sri Lankan challenge and boy did they do! While Sri Lanka did look solid on a few occasions whether it was the resilience shown by Oshadi Ranasinghe or the potentially threatening 36-run partnership between Hasini Perera and Nilakshi de Silva, the Indian team always came out strong and remained in control of the game until the end and restricted Sri Lanka to a meagre 97/8 in their 20 overs thanks to brilliant bowling performances by Titas Sadhu, Pooja Vastrakar and Rajeshwari Gayakwad.

The eyes of the nation will now be on the Indian Men’s Cricket Team who will start their maiden Asian Games journey on the 3^rd of October, hoping that boys will make the country proud as well just like the girls did today in the Asian Games Women’s Cricket Final.  

Please, also have a look into : India clinches gold and sets new world record in 10m Air Rifle Men’s Team event at Asian Games 2023