Shafali and Mandhana power India to another Asia Cup title

Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma’s mammoth opening stand, followed by a dominating outing by spinners gave India their fourth Women’s T20 Asia Cup title on Sunday (September 13).

Comfortably the best team of the tournament, India extended their supremacy at the event with a thumping 72-run win, the base for which was set by their openers in the first hour.

Verma’s onslaught didn’t begin with savagery but two soft touches, fetching back-to-back fours off Mithali Ayodhya by guiding one past gully, and nudging the next one to the midwicket fence. She freed her arms against Chamari Athapaththu, hitting two sixes across four balls to get going.

Having started off steadily, she exploded to smash the fastest fifty in T20 Asia Cups, one ball fewer (24) than Mandhana’s effort in 2022. This time, Mandhana was happy playing second-fiddle, barely needing to look for shots early on.

Against Chamudi Praboda, Verma continued the charge, hitting another set of back-to-back fours, punishing loose lengths. Her fifty, the third of the tournament, came in the eighth over itself.

Mandhana kicked off the proceedings with a first ball four but was happy to separate her boundaries with a string of singles and doubles. The duo eventually matched the world record for the most 100+ stands for any wicket (six). By the 12th over, they had cruised to 120/0. The final was fast running away from the Lankans.

But Verma’s dismissal next over gave them an entry. Soon after, Harmanpreet Kaur and Mandhana were involved in a terrible mix-up, leading to the latter’s run-out. The run-scoring stalled thereafter, as the middle-order perished trying to keep the run-rate going. They still had enough to cross 180, including a last-ball six by G Kamalini, swapped in for Pratika Rawal.

Sri Lanka had an onerous task at hand: only once before had a 150-plus chase in Women's T20 Asia Cup been achieved. That was accomplished by the Lankans against India in the 2024 final. But two years later, their pursuit got off to a poor start. Four balls in, Imesha Dulani was taken out by a pumped up Kranti Gaud, who gave the batter a send-off. Dulani had started off the innings with a lap shot, but a repeat led to her stumps being rattled.

After a quiet first three overs, Sri Lanka found some firepower through Athapaththu, who slog-swept Verma for a six, taking 12 runs off her first over. Having settled in, she found company in Vishmi Gunaratne, and together they pushed Sri Lanka past 50 without any further loss. Athapaththu then went after Prema Rawat in an 11-run over, hitting a six and four off back-to-back balls.

Deepti Sharma’s second over proved to be pivotal. Athapaththu was stumped trying to charge the off-spinner, the dismissal firmly pushing India towards reclaiming control. Three balls later, Gunaratne was cleaned up as well, and Sri Lanka slid into deep trouble.

Shree Charani then continued her stellar 2026 by piercing through their middle order, extinguishing any hopes of a miracle. Beyond the top three, only Nilakshika Silva could get into double-digits, as Sri Lanka slowly folded to 111 all out, giving India the title.

The 72-run margin is now the second-biggest victory margin in the final of a five-plus team tournament in Women's T20Is, only behind Australia's 85-run win over India in the T20 World Cup 2020 final at the MCG

Brief scores: India Women 183/5 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 68, Smriti Mandhana 59; Mithali Ayodhya 1-33, Chamari Athapaththu 1-34) beat Sri Lanka Women 111/10 in 20 overs (Athapaththu 36, Nilakshika Silva 22; Shree Charani 4-20, Deepti Sharma 3-19) by 72 runs.