Dubai, Sep 13 (IANS) India captain Harmanpreet Kaur heaped praise on her team after winning the eighth Women’s Asia Cup title by beating Sri Lanka in the 2026 final by 72 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
Kaur called her team a great one and emphasised that they played to their standards to lift the continental showpiece yet again. “We feel this way because we know how much potential we have, and we have a great team.
“I think we played to our standards because that’s what we discussed when we came here: we have certain standards, and we have to, you know, keep matching them every day. And we are very happy with the way we all performed. And I think the girls have done fabulously well throughout the entire tournament, setting 184 in a final,” Kaur said after the win.
She heaped praise on the openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana, who put up a record 129-run partnership for the opening wicket and laid the platform to take the Women in Blue to 183/5 in 20 overs. The 129-run stand is now the highest in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup for any wicket.
“Yes, definitely. We all knew it’s not that easy to come back, but I think our openers did an absolutely great job for us, the way they both batted, Smriti and Shafali.
“I think Shafali had a very, you know, great tournament, and it’s good to see somebody like Shafali taking responsibility and doing the job with bat and ball. And I mean, I can’t ask anything else from them. It’s all about, you know, playing good cricket, and at the end of the day, I’m very happy overall,” she said.
She also thanked the crowd for their constant support for the Women in Blue wherever they go. “I think I’ve been saying that they are our biggest support. Wherever we go, they’re always there to support us, and I think in front of them we always want to play great cricket and hope we are able to, you know, entertain them with our great performance.
“And I’m sure today, it’s good to see a lot of smiles, a lot of, you know, people enjoying their performance, and hopefully we’ll keep continuing that,” she said.
Shafali smashed 68 from 39 balls and also hit the fastest half-century in the history of the tournament, when she raised her bat for the milestone off just 24 deliveries. The Indian bowlers backed things pretty well as Shree Charani picked up four wickets, while Deepti Sharma also scalped three wickets to take the Women in Blue home.
–IANS
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