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- Published: October 14, 2022 19:26
New Delhi: Indian women’s cricket team will look to record its seventh Asia Cup title, while Sri Lanka will eye its maiden cup on Saturday when the two teams lock horns at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Bangladesh.
India have made it to the eighth final of the Asia Cup with six titles to their name until now. Bangladesh have won it once with no other team winning it ever. India have dominated the Asia Cup since its inception in 2004. Sri Lanka stole a one-run victory over Pakistan on Thursday to fix the title clash with India.
The Indian team defeated Thailand by a huge margin of 74 runs where Shafali Verma starred with the bat to take India to a 148-run total.
Sri Lanka have a tall task ahead, with the team playing its first Asia Cup Final. The team played six matches in the league stage of the Asia Cup, winning four of them. India and Pakistan handed defeats to the Sri Lankan team during their league stages.
India topped the table of the Asia Cup League stages as it lost just one game during its entire league journey. The team came second to Pakistan in its fourth league game.
India will look at Jemimah Rodrigues (Asia Cup’s leading run-scorer with 215 runs) and Shafali Verma in their batting department as the batters have been in excellent form in the tournament and have scored more than 200 runs each.
The team will also rely on Deepti Sharma’s all-around skills to help India seal a seventh Asia Cup. Deepti has picked up 13 wickets in the tournament while also making useful contributions with the bat.
Sri Lanka will look at Harshith Samarawickrama to score important runs for the team while the bowling department’s onus will lie on Inoka Ranaweera who was the Player of the Match in the semi-finals against Pakistan.
India are clearly the favourite if the head-to-head records of the last five matches are any indication. Sri Lanka have lost four of the last five matches against India, winning only one.
