India’s yet another successful title triumph is one step closer after their expected, yet exceptional all-round display to set up a comfortable 82-run victory against Nepal to seal their semi-final berth in the ongoing 2024 Women’s Asia Cup. (More Cricket News|Highlights)
In the end, India’s 178 for 3 was much more than just enough as their bowling arsenal did a great job and the target was far from Nepal’s reach despite a decent showing.
Deepti Sharma had a fantastic outing with the ball, spinning Nepal in her web, picking up three wickets for just 13 runs. On the other end, Radha Yadav played the perfect second-fiddle with spin, taking two wickets for 12 runs.
Renuka Singh and Tanuja Kanwar bowled miserly spells, giving just 15 and 12 runs respectively, and also notched up a maiden each next to their names.
Earlier, India’s stand-in captain Smriti Mandhana, won the top and opted to have a bat on a very good looking Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium.
However, to everyone’s surprise, there was an experiment promoting Dayalan Hemalatha to open the innings with Shafali Verma. The duo took their time to assess the conditions and then started to slowly shift gears.
Verma blasted her way to a career-best 81 from just 48 deliveries, while her partner Hemalatha scored 47. Jemimah Rodrigues’ 15-ball 28 helped India reach 178 after the openers were sent back with small contributions from Sanjana Sanjeev and Richa Ghosh’s three-ball unbeaten stay.
India will play their semi-final on Friday, July 26th at the same venue in Dambulla.
