Women's Asia Cup 2022 Final: India favourite ahead of Sri Lanka to win seventh title

The stage is set for the grand finale of the 2022 Women's Asia Cup. India will be taking on Sri Lanka in Sylhet on Saturday. the Indians remain a stern favourite to take their seventh title over a first for Lanka.

A ruthless Team India would look to reassert its supremacy and win an unprecedented seventh Women's Asia Cup title, clashing against Sri Lanka in the final at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Saturday. The competition brought to the fore India's depth, as the younger crop of players has shouldered the burden of taking the team to the final without any tangible contribution from skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana. Such has been the impact of the Indian side that Harmanpreet played just four matches (81 runs) and, in total, faced solely 72 balls.

Even Mandhana, who captained India in three contests, skipped a match and didn't need to contribute much. The most significant takeaway from an event like this is that the Indian team's junior members could react to pressure situations perfectly when thrown at the pool's deep end. The most heartening aspect was how three 'seasoned' youngsters -- 18-year-old Shafali Verma (161 runs and three wickets), 22-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues (215 runs) and 25-year-old Deepti Sharma (94 runs and 13 wickets) put their hands up and carried the team through to the summit clash.

The only concern in an otherwise effortless stint was a loss to arch-rival Pakistan due to some weird planning by head coach Ramesh Powar and Harmanpreet. India wouldn't be getting a chance to settle scores with Pakistan in this edition, as Lanka knocked it out in the semis. At least on paper, the summit clash is a complete mismatch, as only a Lankan batter (Oshadi Ranasinghe) has scaled the 100-plus strike rate.

Only a couple of Lankan batters -- Harshitha Madavi (201 runs) and Nilakshi de Silva (124 runs) --- have collected 100-plus runs across contests. Even its most well-known woman cricketer Chamari Athapaththu has scored just 96 at a below-par strike rate of 85-plus. Only left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera (12 wickets) has shone in bowling.

To put it effectively, the quality of competition in the Asia Cup isn't tremendous. In terms of talent quotient and experience, India is quite some lightyears ahead of its other neighbouring countries. Hence, it might be challenging to upset the Indian apple cart for Lanka. However, in the previous edition in Malaysia, four years back, Bangladesh stunned the favourites in the final.

The Lankan women enthralled cricket lovers across the globe with a celebratory dance video following their triumph over Pakistan, which has since gone viral. But, if they could get past Harmanpreet's side on Saturday, it would be icing on the cake, as its men's unit already won the Asia Cup a month back.

Jemimah's new-found consistency and Deepti's dependability with both bat and the ball have been the hallmark for India. Shafali, who had a poor run before the event, also found her bearings with the bat and is bowling some mean leg-breaks. The depth in its spin department would make India the runaway favourite, where Deepti, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Sneh Rana have all been highly economical.

Such has been the conditions that seamers Renuka Singh and Meghna Singh were not required much. Meghna didn't play in the semis versus Thailand. The track at this venue has been slower, where stroke-making is quite an uphill task. In the round-robin meeting between the two groups, India batted first and scored 150 before bowling out Lanka for 109.

Squads:
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Meghana Singh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Dayalan Hemalatha, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Thakur, Meghna Singh, Kiran Navgire and Pooja Vastrakar.
Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Nilakshi de Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Achini Kulasuriya, Sugandha Kumari, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Madhushika Methtananda, Hasini Perera, Odhadi Ranasinghe, Inoka Ranaweera, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Kaushani Nuthyangana (wk), Malsha Shehani and Rashmi Silva.

Match details
Date and day: October 15, 2022 (Friday)
Venue: Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Sylhet
Time: 1.00 PM (IST)
Where to watch (TV): Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 Hindi & Sports Select (Also available in HD)
Where to watch (Online): Hotstar

(With inputs from PTI)