India’s women’s cricket team opened the country’s gold-medal account at the 2026 Asian Games Tuesday, producing a dominant all-round performance to thrash Sri Lanka by 147 runs in the final and successfully defend the title it won at Hangzhou three years ago.
Batting first at the Korogi Sports Park, India piled up 216 for three — the highest total in women’s cricket at the Asian Games — on the back of Smriti Mandhana’s 79 off 45 balls, Shafali Verma’s 48 off 29 and Richa Ghosh’s unbeaten 49 off 22. Sri Lanka’s chase never gathered momentum as the Indian bowlers dismissed them for 69 in 15.4 overs, sealing a second successive Asian Games gold in emphatic fashion. The victory also took India’s medal tally at the ongoing Games to seven.
Mandhana leads charge
Mandhana and Shafali set the tone with a 99-run opening partnership, attacking Sri Lanka’s bowlers from the outset. India raced to 67 without loss in the Powerplay before Shafali fell two runs short of a half-century, having struck three fours and three sixes.
Mandhana continued to dominate, reaching her half-century off 31 balls and finishing with five fours and seven sixes. During the innings, she also became the first woman cricketer to complete 11,000 runs in international cricket.
Harmanpreet Kaur made 19 before Richa provided the late acceleration India needed. The wicketkeeper-batter smashed six fours and three sixes in her unbeaten 49 as India crossed 200 and finished on 216 for three. The innings included 13 sixes, another indication of India’s dominance with the bat.
Sri Lanka collapse
Chasing 217, Sri Lanka lost wickets regularly and were unable to build a partnership capable of putting India under pressure. Shafali followed her 48 with two wickets as her off-spin made early inroads, while Deepti Sharma returned figures of 3 for 6.
Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu provided the only significant resistance with 29, but her dismissal effectively ended any prospect of a recovery. Eight Sri Lankan batters failed to reach double figures as the side was bowled out for 69 with more than four overs remaining.
The result continued India’s recent dominance over Sri Lanka in major finals. India had beaten them for gold at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games and again in the Women’s Asia Cup final earlier this month before completing another one-sided victory Tuesday.
Back-to-back golds
For Harmanpreet’s team, the victory completed an unbeaten Asian Games campaign and reinforced its position at the top of Asian women’s cricket. India entered the tournament as defending champions and went through the competition without allowing an opponent to seriously threaten its title defence.
The gold was India’s first of the Aichi-Nagoya Games. Pakistan, meanwhile, secured the bronze medal in women’s cricket after defeating Bangladesh by 31 runs.