Sri Lanka chase a first Asian Games gold as Athapaththu leads them back to a final with India

Sri Lanka have never won an Asian Games cricket gold medal, and Chamari Athapaththu's form is the strongest argument they carry into Tuesday's final against India

Sri Lanka Women play for the gold medal at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin on Tuesday, three years after losing the same fixture to the same opponent in Hangzhou. Their captain has taken them there with very little help.

Athapaththu has made 63 and an unbeaten 83 in two innings at these Games, a tournament-leading 146 runs, and has added figures of 2-3 and 1-30 with the ball. Sri Lanka have won both their matches without ever being stretched.

India, who beat them in the Women's Asia Cup final on 13 September and in the last Asian Games final, are the obstacle again.

Athapaththu's tournament so far

Her 83 not out against Pakistan came from 50 balls and contained seven fours and six sixes, the fifty arriving from 37 deliveries.

In the quarter-final against Malaysia she made 63 as Sri Lanka posted 160 for 4, a total that proved 86 runs too many for opponents held to 74 for 7.

The two innings leave her clear at the top of the tournament's run chart, and she has bowled in both matches.

A semi-final chase without alarm

Pakistan batted first on Sunday and reached 177 for 4, built on Ayesha Zafar's 71 from 40 balls and a 115-run stand with Shawaal Zulfiqar, who made 54.

Sri Lanka answered with 178 for 2 in 17.5 overs, an eight-wicket win completed with 13 balls to spare.

Athapaththu and Hasini Perera added 95 for the second wicket, Perera making 42 from 26 balls with three fours and three sixes. Harshitha Samarawickrama finished unbeaten on 17.

Beaten by India in Dubai

The two sides met in the Women's Asia Cup final in Dubai on 13 September, where Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana opened with a stand of 129, the highest for any wicket in that tournament's history.

India made 183 for 5 and bowled Sri Lanka out for 111 to win by 72 runs and an eighth Asia Cup title.

"We did not play our best game in all three departments," Athapaththu said after that defeat. "We played really good cricket throughout the tournament, but today we struggled a little bit. It doesn't mean we are not good enough."

She said in the same exchange that the Asian Games were coming and that her side would bounce back.

A rematch of the Hangzhou final

The 2022 Asian Games final, played in September 2023, ended with India winning by 19 runs after making 116 for 7 and holding Sri Lanka to 97 for 8.

That was India's first Asian Games gold in women's cricket and Sri Lanka's first silver. Their only other medal in the sport is a bronze from Incheon in 2014, the year Pakistan won the second of their two golds.

Sunday's semi-final win guarantees Sri Lanka at least silver for a second successive Games.

India arrive with Shafali in full flow

Shafali Verma made her maiden T20I century in the second semi-final, 100 not out from 49 balls with three fours and nine sixes, as India posted 195 for 4 against Bangladesh.

Bangladesh were dismissed for 81 in 15.4 overs, Deepti Sharma taking 3-7 and Nandani Sharma 3-25, and India won by 114 runs.

Smriti Mandhana made 37 from 19 in the same innings and passed Suzie Bates as the leading run-scorer in women's T20 internationals.

India had earlier beaten hosts Japan by eight wickets in the quarter-final, chasing 57.

The gold-medal match starts at 10:30am IST on Tuesday, with Bangladesh and Pakistan meeting for bronze at the same ground five hours earlier.

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