Bharatiya Women successfully defended 116 to defeat Sri
Lanka Women by 19 runs and win a historic gold medal in cricket.
Oshadi Ranasinghe kept Sri Lanka alive for the
longest time in chase but her wicket has Sri Lanka with too much to get as they
eventually finished on 97.8.
Titas Sadhu orchestrated a dream start with the ball
for Bharat women picking up three wickets in two overs and finished with
astonoshing figures of 3/6 from 4 overs.
At 14/3, Sri Lanka women were lifted by a 36-run
partnership between Hasini Perera and Nilakshi de Silva.
Rajeshwari Gayakwad gave Bharat a much-needed
breakthrough through the wicket of Perera but the job was done done.
Bharat then tightened the screws in the last five
overs, keeping their nerves and win the first ever gold medal in cricket for
India.
This was after Bharat Women endured another batting
collapse and posted a total of 116/7 against Sri Lanka Women in the cricket
gold medal final.
From 89/1, the team lost six wickets for just 27
runs in the last five overs. While the pitch wasn’t exactly a batting paradise,
IND W should have aimed for a higher total.
Batting was challenging on this pitch, but Smriti
Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues displayed admirable resistance against the Sri
Lankan spinners. They formed a solid half-century partnership, adding 73 runs
for the second wicket.
After IND W captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Varma
and Mandhana both found the early boundaries.
But Shafali was soon out stumped. After a promising
partnership, Mandhana fell just four runs short of her fifty, as Sri Lanka
struck in quick succession to dismiss her and Richa Ghosh.
From that point, Bharat women faced a downhill
slide, with the wickets of Harmanpreet, Pooja Vastrakar, Rodrigues, and Amanjot
Kaur going down rapidly.
Agencies
