Bangladesh won their first-ever Women’s Asia Cup title by stunning India in the final by 3 wickets. This was the second occasion that Bangladesh defeated India in the tournament after edging past them earlier in the league stage. Thus, India’s run of six straight Asia Cup titles (four ODIs and two T20s) came to an end.
India’s batting line-up could not create any impact as the batters fell like nine pins in front of the Bangladesh bowlers. At a point India were reduced to 32/4 after being put in to bat. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and veda Krishnamurthy had a fifth-wicket partnership of 30 runs to mend the innings. Harmanpreet reached her fifth T20I half-century but there was no other to batter to support her. At the end of 20 overs India reached a total of 112 runs for 9 wickets.
Chasing a modest target, Bangladesh openers Shamima Sultana and Ayasha Rahman got off to good star. Poonam Yadav removed both the openers but Fargana Haque and Nigar Sultana took the Bangladesh score past the 50-run mark. Poonam again gave the break for India by getting rid of Fargana and Nigar. Next Fatima Khatun was stumped by wicket-keeper Taniya Bhatia off the bowling of Harmanpreet.
India were getting it right as Deepti Sharma conceded just four runs in the penultimate over of the innings. Bangladesh needed 9 runs off the final six balls. Rumana Ahmed slammed a boundary on the second ball of the last over to put Bangladesh firmly in command. However, Sanjida Islam and Rumana Ahmed then fell off fourth and fifth deliveries respectively, giving Bangladesh a target of two runs of the final delivery. Jahanara Alam swept the ball towards mid-wicket and won the match in thrilling style for Bangladesh.
