Istafa Ali
Sri Lanka Women’s team crashed out Pakistani Women’s team from the gold medal race in the Asian games. The Islanders defeated the Green Shirts by 6 wickets. During the Asian games that are going on in Hangzhou China, Pakistan were favorites for the gold medal as they had won it in the last Asian games.
The match was held at Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field on Sunday. Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field first. Sri Lankan bowlers got rid of Pakistani opener Sidra Ameen only in the third over of the match. Shawal Zulfiqar was next to follow and after 8.1 overs Pakistan found themselves 30 for 3. None of the Pakistani batters were able to consolidate and Pakistan ended their 20 overs at a score of 75 for a loss of 9 wickets.
Shawal Zulfiqar was the top scorer for Pakistan with 16 runs, she was one of three batters who reached double figures.
For Sri Lanka, Udeshika Prabodhani had the best bowling figures as she took 3 wickets and gave away only 21 runs.
Sri Lanka also had a tumbling start as their top order collapsed in chasing an easy total. The Islanders found themselves 35 for loss of 3 wickets.
For the fourth wicket, Harshitha Samarawickrama and Nilakshi de Silva built a solid partnership of 35 runs to put Sri Lanka in a winning position.
Sri Lanka chased the target in the 17th over to qualify for the final where they will face India. Pakistan had high hopes of winning the gold medal in these Asian Games in cricket, but Pakistan will now only be competing for the bronze medal in these ongoing Asian Games 2023.
