India Women vs Sri Lanka Women, Final, Women's Asia Cup 2026 - CommentaryINDW vs SLW, Final, Women's Asia Cup 2026 - Commentary

Alright, I guess that’s it then. Both India and Sri Lanka will now head to Japan for the Asian Games, which gets underway on September 17. Hope you enjoyed our coverage of the Women’s Asia Cup 2026. That’s it from us for now. It’s goodnight, goodbye and take care from Hardik Worah, on behalf of Siva and Kiran Nataraj.

Our esteemed writer Vijay Tagore has posted on X, with Mohsin Naqvi insisting on presenting the trophy and India unwilling to accept it from him, the trophy impasse continues. India leave victorious, but trophy-less - just like they did during the Men's Asia Cup in 2025.

Not sure what’s happening, but the Indian team are yet to receive their medals and trophy. At least, we haven’t been shown any live visuals of that happening. Presenter Farveez Maharoof calls a wrap on the presentation ceremony. Not quite sure what happened there, but we are sure to get more updates on the situation. It’s worth noting that this comes against the backdrop of last year’s men’s Asia Cup presentation, when the Indian team did not collect their medals or trophy from Naqvi. They instead posed for the cameras without them, even mimicking a trophy lift. Naqvi was also present on the podium tonight, making the developments around this presentation all the more intriguing. We weren’t shown any visuals, as the live telecast was cut off straight after Athapaththu spoke to Maharoof. I guess we will have to wait for more updates, which you will find right here on Cricketlineguruji.

Chamari Athapaththu | SL captain: This is part of the game. One team wins, and one team loses, but at the end of the day, I know we didn't play our best cricket. Especially in the powerplay, we struggled a lot with the bowling. They played really well. But we will bounce back because after this, we have the Asian Games coming up. So we need to improve in a lot of areas, and we will bounce back. [How do you assess this result ahead of the Asian Games?] Apart from this game, we played really good cricket throughout this tournament. We beat a couple of teams, and today we struggled a bit, but it doesn't mean we are not good enough. We need to execute our plans, and I hope we can bounce back. [Who were your standout performers throughout this tournament?] A lot of players improved a lot and played good cricket. Especially Harshitha, Praboda and Nilakshika. So we will carry all these positives into the next series.

The match officials come one by one to collect their respective mementos. Chamari Athapaththu steps up first to collect her runners-up medal, followed by her Sri Lankan teammates and coaching staff, who come forward one by one to receive theirs. Athapaththu now receives the runners-up cheque from Mohsin Naqvi, the President of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).

The Indian team are in a huddle, with head coach Amol Muzumdar addressing the players after their title triumph. Devajit Saikia, BCCI secretary, and Rajiv Shukla, BCCI vice-president, are now presenting the fielding medal to Nandani Sharma. Saikia has also spent some time speaking to the players and congratulating them on their win.

Gunalan Kamalini: [How does it feel to be included today?] It's something different. I couldn't digest it. It's a different feeling. I can't put it into words. [How valuable was being part of this squad?] I'm an 18-year-old kid, and there are a lot of seniors here. So, I could learn a lot from them. [What lessons from the tournament will you take?] I think what I've learned from the seniors is their mindset. Whether they get out for zero or score 100, they have the same mindset, the same laughs and the same smile.

Nandani Sharma: It feels really good. I was in a tournament in India, and I got injured. I was in the WPL, the World Cup, so this is my first one. It feels really, really good, and then we won again, so it feels even better. [How did you keep Chamari Athapaththu quiet?] I think the credit goes to my teammates and the staff. They kept everything very clear for us about what we had to do, so I just did that. [How will this title help ahead of the Asian Games?] Confidence is very high, and it is there in our practice as well. Whatever little mistakes we made, we will work on them and then go there and win as well. [What would you like to say about Deepti Sharma?] She is someone who, whenever a wicket is really needed, eventually gets that wicket. So we knew she would handle everything. We just had to give a good start with the ball.

Richa Ghosh: [On the atmosphere] It's really great because the atmosphere here, with the fans coming and cheering for us, feels really great. And after the result, I think it feels even better. [On posting 183 batting first] In the beginning, the wicket was good and the ball was coming nicely, and gradually the wicket was getting slower. So I think all our batters played really well, and we put up a decent total knowing that we could restrict them. [How important is your contribution for the team?] It is very important for the team. The position where I go in to bat and the role that has been given to me, I think scoring runs there helps the team a lot. [How are you planning to celebrate this victory?] We’ll see, we’ll talk to everyone and decide what we can do. I haven’t thought about it yet; the game has just finished.

Harmanpreet 2/2: [What would you like to say to the crowd?] I think I've been telling that they are our biggest support. Wherever we go, they're always there to support us, and I think in front of them we always want to play great cricket and hope we are able to, you know, entertain them with our great performance. And I'm sure today, it's good to see a lot of smiles, a lot of, you know, people enjoying their performance, and hopefully we'll keep continuing that. [Are the celebrations going to start very soon?] Yes, definitely. As I mentioned, we set some really high standards for us, and we had to match them, you know, every day, and I'm pretty happy with the way we all came up together.

Harmanpreet Kaur | India captain 1/2: [How does winning the cup after so long feel?] We feel this way because we know how much potential we have, and we have a great team. I think we played to our standards because that's what we discussed when we came here: we have certain standards, and we have to keep matching them every day. And we are very happy with the way we all performed. And I think the girls have done fabulously well throughout the entire tournament, setting 184 in a final. That's a big thing. [How important was the opening partnership?] Yes, definitely. We all knew it's not that easy to come back, but I think our openers did an absolutely great job for us, the way they both batted, Smriti and Shafali. I think Shafali had a very great tournament, and it's good to see somebody like Shafali taking responsibility and doing the job with bat and ball. And I mean, I can't ask anything else from them. It's all about playing good cricket, and at the end of the day, I'm very happy overall.

Muzumdar 2/2: [On Shafali Verma] Absolutely fantastic. The left-hand-right-hand combination (with Smriti)... Shafali has got her own style and the firepower that she has, and just the charisma that she has on the pitch just puts the opposition on the back foot. Smriti, as usual, she has got that flair, she has got that touch. So they complement each other really well, and I'm glad that they had a good show time today. [What was the plan to dismiss Chamari Athapaththu?] We went back to the five-match series what we played in December against Sri Lanka in India, and how we dismissed Chamari, very important wicket as far as Sri Lanka is concerned. So I thought that was the plan, but I'm glad that Deepti went on to execute it nicely.

Amol Muzumdar | India coach 1/2: [How would you assess the team's overall tournament performance?] Fantastic effort. They showed up from the first game and, fittingly, finished it off strong. Really proud of all the players and all the support staff as well. It was a fantastic pitch today, and we came up good. I think our batting was really strong. We started off really nicely, and that's what we spoke about in the meetings, and the girls went on to execute things really nicely. [Why did India choose to bat first today?] I mean, if you see throughout the fortnight, I think the pitches were on the slower side, and they turned quite a bit. So putting the score on the board and then defending it, we did have the luxury of having three quality spinners in our ranks. So I think that was predominantly the tactic: put the score on the board and then go out there and defend.

Stats by Roshan Gede

Most T20I wickets for IND-W in a calendar year
39* - Shree Charani in 2026
35 - Poonam Yadav in 2018
30 - Deepti Sharma in 2024
30* - Deepti Sharma in 2026
29 - Deepti Sharma in 2022
29 - Radha Yadav in 2024

4-fers in Women’s T20I Asia Cup final
4/9 - Poonam Yadav (IND-W) vs BAN-W, Kuala Lumpur, 2018
4/13 - Sana Mir (PAK-W) vs IND-W, Guangzhou, 2012
4/20 - Shree Charani (IND-W) vs SL-W, Dubai, 2026

Sixes in Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2026 (balls/six)
32 - India (16.62)
8 - Sri Lanka (64.62)
7 - Pakistan (67.15)
4 - Bangladesh (120.25)
2 - Thailand (169)
1 - Indonesia (334)
0 - Hong Kong
0 - UAE

Women’s T20I Asia Cup winners
2012: India
2016: India
2018: Bangladesh
2022: India
2024: Sri Lanka
2026: India
India won all four editions in the ODI format: 2004, 2005/06, 2006 and 2008.

India’s outright dominance at Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2026
Batting run-rate: 8.35 (Other teams combined: 5.12)
Runs/wicket: 26.46 (Other teams combined: 11.95)
Individual 50s: 4 (Other teams combined: 2)
Individual 100s: 1 (Other teams combined: none)
Sixes: 32 (other teams combined: 22)
Bowling average: 8.84 (other teams combined: 16.12)
Bowling ER: 4.29 (other teams combined: 5.79)

India however, were the worst fielding side of the tournament in terms of catching. They dropped 17 catches, 10 more than the next most (7 by Indonesia). These two were the only teams with a sub-70 catching efficiency in the tournament: Indonesia (58.8%), India (59.5%).

72 runs is the second-biggest victory margin in the final of a 5-plus team tournament in Women's T20Is, only behind Australia's 85-run win over India in the T20 World Cup 2020 final at the MCG.

21:53 Local Time, 17:53 GMT, 23:23 IST: India are the champions of Asia once again! They have defeated defending champions Sri Lanka in convincing fashion to lift their 8th Women's Asia Cup title. Chasing 184 was always going to be a steep hill to climb, and India’s disciplined attack made it virtually impossible. Sri Lanka lost wickets in clusters, having no answers to the spin and guile of Charani, who delivered a game-changing spell of 4 for 22. The experienced Deepti Sharma provided brilliant support, picking up 3 crucial wickets to finish as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament. The Indian spinners operated in tandem to completely freeze the scoring through the middle overs, and as the required rate skyrocketed, Sri Lanka simply collapsed under the pressure of trying to hit out. Sri Lanka entered the final unbeaten on the back of several middle-order rescue acts, but today there was no coming back. India were by far the most dominant team in the tournament and are fully deserving of their historic 8th title!

Deepti Sharma to Kaushani Nuthyangana, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!