Asia Cup final – Harmanpreet Kaur says good to see Shafali Verma taking responsibility

There was a lengthy delay for the presentations which was attended by only the Sri Lanka players. India’s players were not present. The player of the match and player of the tournament were not announced. The trophy was not handed over. It rekindled images from the men’s Asia Cup in 2025 when India refused to collect the trophy when they learned it would be handed over by Mohsin Naqvi, the Asian Cricket council president who is also the PCB chief and the interior minister of Pakistan. Naqvi was among the dignitaries at the presentation in Dubai on Sunday as well. Political relations between India and Pakistan are strained.

Shafali topped the Asia Cup run-charts with 236 runs in five innings and picked up two wickets. She capped off the tournament with 68 off 39 balls as India strolled past Sri Lanka by 72 runs in the final.

“I think Shafali had a great tournament and it’s good to see somebody like Shefali who is taking the responsibility and doing the job with bat and ball,” Harmanpreet said. “I can’t ask anything else from her. It’s all about playing good cricket and I am very happy about that. We set some really high standards for us and we had to match them every day.”

Sunday’s win was set up by the India openers, Shafali and Smriti Mandhana, who added 129 runs – the highest partnership for any wicket in the women’s T20 Asia Cup. Their stand paved the way for India to dominate in Dubai.

“Absolutely fantastic,” Amol Muzumdar, the India head coach, said on the openers’ performance. “Great left-hand, right-hand combination. Shafali has got her own style. 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’s got that flair. She’s got that touch. So, they complement each other really well. I’m glad that they had a good show time today.

“I think our batting was really strong. We started off really nicely. That’s what we spoke about in the meetings. The girls went on to execute things really nicely.”

India batted first after winning the toss, a tactic which Muzumdar said was on their minds, taking into account the slow nature of the Dubai pitches. Once India posted 183 for 5, their main target was taking out Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu, which they managed fairly early and it was a stroll in the park thereon. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 111.

“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 good 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,” Muzumdar said.

“Then, we went back to the five-match series that we played in December against Sri Lanka in India and how we dismissed Chamari. A 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.”

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