It was a historic moment for the Indian women's cricket team as the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side defeated Sri Lanka in the final to win the gold medal at the Asian Games 2023 on Monday. This was the first ever gold medal for India in women's cricket at the continental competition as they did not take part in the 2010 and 2014 editions. This was also the second gold medal for India on Monday after a phenomenal performance in the 10m air rifle team event. The Indian women's cricket team looked completely in control and celebrations erupted the moment the match ended with the players celebrating on the field.
Titas Sadhu singlehandedly earned a gold medal for the Indian women's cricket team in its maiden appearance as it defeated Sri Lanka by 19 runs.
On a pitch difficult for batting, the Indian women's team struggled to 116 for seven but it was just about par score.
However Titas, who is just four days shy of his 19th birthday, bowled a devastating first spell and finished with superb figures of 4-1-6-3 to play a big role in restricting Sri Lanka to 97 for eight in 20 overs.
She had an able ally in leg-spinner Devika Vaidya (4-0-15-1), who kept a tight leash on the islanders.
Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad (3-0-20-2) and off-spinner Deepti Sharma (4-0-25-1) started off badly but were on target during the back-end as Indian women always looked in complete control.
This was one gold medal that India were expected to win, but the standard of cricket was pretty poor, and the nature of wicket didn't help matters.
(With PTI inputs)