Harmanpreet Kaur praised her players’ resilience for the short transition from the batting-friendly and seaming conditions of England to humid, low-scoring Sylhet, finding their groove after just one training session. India will play Sri Lanka in the Women’s Asia Cup final on Saturday.
Indian women’s cricket team will look to record its seventh Asia Cup title, while Sri Lanka will eye its maiden cup when the two teams lock horns at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Bangladesh.
India has made it to the eighth final of the Asia Cup with six titles to their name until now. Bangladesh has won it once with no other team winning it ever. India has dominated the Asia Cup since its inception in 2004.
“Conditions and wickets were totally different in England, and it is totally different here. We only got one day to change our gears. In England, we were getting good batting tracks and the ball was swinging. But when we got here, we had to change our plans. But the good thing was that all the players took the challenge. We got only one warm-up session before the game, so it shows how strong we are as a team. The character is building. It is something I really appreciated in the team meetings also. We are enjoying our cricket,” said Harmanpreet in a press conference on the eve of the title clash.
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 is clearly the favorite if the head-to-head records of the last five matches are any indication. Sri Lanka has lost four of the last five matches against India, winning only one. (ANI)
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