Under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur, the team defeated Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 72 runs in the final to win the Women’s Asia Cup 2026. Batting first, India posted a mammoth total of 183. Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana shared a record opening partnership of 129 runs. Defending the total, Shree Charani took four wickets, while Deepti Sharma took three.
The India women’s cricket team also stayed away from the post-match presentation ceremony after winning the trophy, with Mohsin Naqvi present on the stage during the proceedings in Dubai.
Defending 183, India got off to a good start, dismissing Imesha Dulani (4) in the very first over through Kranti Goud. However, Chamari Atapattu and Vishmi Gunaratne then steadied the innings with a half-century (58) partnership for the second wicket, giving the impression that the match could be a close one. However, they were unable to maintain the run rate, and after the pair’s departure, Sri Lanka’s innings collapsed. Atapattu scored 36 runs in 32 balls, hitting two sixes and four fours. Vishmi made 20, both dismissed by Deepti Sharma.
Shree Charani took 4 wickets. Shafali scored 68
Charani then wreaked havoc with her bowling, dismissing Harshitha Madhavi (9) in the 14th over. She then dismissed Kavisha Dilhari (7) and Nilakshika de Silva (22) in the 16th over to ensure India’s victory. She claimed her fourth wicket in the form of . Deepti dismissed Kaushani Nuthyangana on the final ball of the final over to complete an all-out Sri Lanka victory. India won the Women’s Asia Cup 2026 final by 72 runs.
After the match, India coach Amol Muzumdar said, “It was a 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.”
He added, “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.”
Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu said, “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.”
“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. 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.”
India won the Women’s Asia Cup title for the 8th time
The Indian women’s team, winners of the inaugural edition in 2004, now has a total of eight Women’s Asia Cup titles. India also avenged their previous victory. It’s worth noting that Sri Lanka were the champions in the previous edition, having defeated India in the final
Brief scores: India Women 183/5 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 68, Smriti Mandhana 59; Mithali Ayodhya 1-33, Chamari Athapaththu 1-34) beat Sri Lanka Women 111/10 in 20 overs (Athapaththu 36, Nilakshika Silva 22; Shree Charani 4-20, Deepti Sharma 3-19) by 72 runs.
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