Women's Asia Cup 2024: Smriti Mandhana's side are looking a class apart from the rest, as India Women's title defence in the ongoing Women's Asia Cup 2024 is seemingly inch-perfect. The defending champions thumped Nepal Women by 82 runs in their final group stage game, and have now finished their group stage as winners of their group.
Electing to bat first, Smriti Mandhana was captaining the side in the absence of Harmanpreet Kaur, who was rested keeping in mind the workload and the left-handed opening batsman made some interesting choices up the order. Dayalan Hemalatha was heavily struggling for form, but was promoted as an opener and she now finally discovers some rhythm by scoring 47 off 42 against Nepal Women.
Shafali Verma's 81 powered the India Women's innings to 178/3 in their 20 overs, and all Nepal Women could manage in their 20 overs was merely 96 runs at the loss of 9 wickets, as they ended their group stage with a huge loss.
"I relied on my strengths, and it worked out well today, so I'm really happy. I'm becoming more consistent and working on finishing strong. I saw the fielder and aimed to hit the ball along the ground. Scoring 200 runs is significant for a batter, and since I wasn't in great form before, this innings really boosted my confidence," said Shafali Verma, who was awarded the Man of the Match.
Here's What The Two Captains Said During Post Match Presentation Ceremony
Indu Barma (Nepal Women Captain):
"I am proud of the team. We have realized our weakness and we will come back more stronger. We respect our opponents. We got great exposure playing against India. I am happy with my team. After the 10th over our bowlers got good momentum. I got lots of experience even my teammates got bunch of experience playing with India, Pakistan. We will play and practice more with this."
Smriti Mandhana (India Women Captain):
"Yeah, definitely. As an opener, it's rare not to get a chance to bat, so I'm really happy with how things went. Shafali batted brilliantly, and Hema also got some runs. We finished well as a team. I think it was much-needed game time for all the batters, especially since the middle order hasn't had many opportunities to bat in the last two T20 series. So, I was really happy with how it turned out, and we finished off well too."
"Not just in this tournament, but in every series we've played over the last 5-6 months, we've been preparing and fine-tuning with the World Cup in mind. You can't enter the World Cup unprepared. It was great to see Nepal play with a smile, and I hope they continue to improve and that we get to play them more often. No team should be taken lightly. We have a couple of days before the semifinal, and for us, nothing changes. We'll rest a bit and then start preparing for it."