Sri Lanka's memorable title in the Asia Cup by stopping the Indian dominance

Kavisha Dilhari blasted Pooja Bhastrakar's outside off stump over long on. The Sri Lankan cricketers entered the field in jubilation as soon as the ball fell over the boundary. The joy of winning the women's Asia Cup for the first time was a wave of excitement throughout the gallery.

Sri Lanka beat India by 8 wickets in the Asia Cup title decider in Dambulla on Sunday. The hosts reached the target of 166 runs with 8 balls to spare.

Sri Lanka tasted the title for the first time in the ninth edition of the Women's Asia Cup. Earlier, they lost four finals against India including ODI and T20. Seven-time champions India lost the second final of the tournament.

This is the highest run chase record in the history of Asia Cup. In the final of 2018, Bangladesh became the champion by reaching the target of 142 runs against India.

This is also the record for Sri Lanka's highest run chase in T20 Internationals. Chamari Atapattu's team successfully chased down the target of 156 runs against South Africa last April.

Atapattu led from the front to win the Asia Cup for the first time. The hero of many successes of Lankans played an innings of 61 runs off 43 balls. Harshita Samarawickrama scored an unbeaten 69 off 51 balls. In the end Kavisha played a cameo innings of 30 runs off 16 balls.

Sri Lanka got hit early in the big run chase. Vishmi Gunaratne was run out in the second over due to a misunderstanding with the captain. But Atapattu did not let pressure on the team. The experienced batsman started scoring runs with Harshita.

Atapattu hit a four after two sixes off Tanuja Kanwar in the sixth over. After that the two batsmen hit at least one boundary in every over. As a result, the pressure on the run rate gradually decreases.

The Lankan captain completed his 12th career fifty in the tenth over. After an over he hit two fours off Dipti Sharma. In that over, Atapattu, who played an innings of 9 fours and 2 sixes, was bowled with the back of his leg in a full length delivery on the leg stump.

His total collection of 304 runs in this year's Asia Cup is two fifties and one century. He is the first batsman to score 300 runs in a tournament.

Harshita and Kavisha took over after the departure of the captain. The two made an explosive unbroken partnership of 73 runs off just 40 balls. Harshita completed his fifty off 43 balls.

Harshita smashed the first ball of Radha Yadav for a six in the equation of 25 runs in three overs. Later he took 17 runs from the over in two more fours. The match came in the hands of Sri Lanka. Kavisha completed the rest in the next over.

Earlier India won the toss and batted without losing a wicket in the power play. However, the two openers could not open their hands. Shefali Verma was lbw when he tried to leave the crease in the seventh over in an attempt to increase the pace of runs.

The opener, who scored 16 runs off 19 balls, left the field after reacting angrily to the umpire's decision. Uma Chhetri, who dropped to number three, also returned lbw. Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur could not last long.

Smriti Mandhana focused on increasing the pace of runs along with Jemima Rodrigues. The left-handed opener completed his second and overall 26th career fifty in the ongoing Asia Cup in 34 balls.

41 runs came from just 26 balls in the fifth wicket pair. Jemima scored 29 runs off 16 balls with 3 fours and 1 six. Atapattu's great catch in the same over is memorable.

Then Richa Ghosh hit 4 fours and 1 six in a 30-run cameo innings from 14 balls to get India capital. But it was not enough to win.

Summary Score:
India: 165/6 in 20 overs (Shefali 16, Smriti 60, Uma 9, Harmanpreet 11, Jemima 29, Richa 30, Pooja 5*, Radha 1*; Priyadarshini 4-0-31-0, Prabodhani 3-0-27- 1, Sugandhika 4-0-23-0, Kavisha 4-0-36-2, Sachini 2-0-20-1, Atapattu 3-0-28-1)

Sri Lanka: 167/2 in 18.4 overs (Gunaratne 1, Atapattu 61, Harshita 69*, Kavisha 30*; Renuka 3-0-23-0, Pooja 3.4-0-29-0, Deepti 4-0-30 -1, Tanuja 4-0-34-0, Radha 4-0-47-0)

Result: Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup by 8 wickets

Player of the Match: Harshita Samarawickrama

Player of the Tournament: Chamari Atapattu