🏏Women's Asia Cup 2026: Thread for earlier matches🏏- Page 8

Harmanpreet Kaur: To be honest, we thought batting first only because we thought having runs on the board will give us a lot of confidence and good we got batting first. [How do you assess this matchup?] T20 format is like that. You can't take any team lightly and result is always uncertain. Today is a fresh game, and we have to go with a positive approach. [Any changes?] No, we're going with the same eleven. [What would be a good total on this surface?] I've been telling that, this pitch is really tricky. You can't really set something in your mind, but let's see how our batting power play goes and accordingly we'll see how much, we can put on the board.

Teams:

India Women (Playing XI): Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Bharti Fulmali, Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Prema Rawat, Shree Charani, Kranti Gaud, Nandani Sharma

Bangladesh Women (Playing XI): Dilara Akter, Juairiya Ferdous, Sobhana Mostary, Nigar Sultana(w/c), Sharmin Akhter, Shorna Akter, Fahima Khatun, Nahida Akter, Rabeya Khan, Sultana Khatun, Marufa Akter

Congratulations to Team India W on reaching the Asia Cup Final.

India have sealed their place in Sunday's final, but they will have to wait until tomorrow night to find out who they will face. Will it be a repeat of the last two editions, with India taking on Sri Lanka? India, of course, fell short against them in the 2024 final. Or will Pakistan make their way through? India have already beaten Pakistan twice in Asia Cup finals, in 2012 and 2016.

Another Women's Asia Cup, another final for India! No final in the competition's history has been played without India, and that remarkable streak lives on in 2026. Once again, India have booked their place in the summit clash. There aren't too many expressions on the faces of the Indian players. They were confident they would go through and have put in a clinical performance tonight. Harmanpreet Kaur, with a straight face, walks over to the Bangladesh players to shake hands, while some of her teammates now have a smile on their faces. A target of 150 was always going to be tough on this surface, and India got there thanks to a stunning and luck-ridden 64 off 40 from Shafali Verma. All of Bangladesh's top five got starts, but at no point did it look like they would chase down the target. Kranti Gaud and Nandani Sharma were decent with the new ball before the spinners took over and never allowed Bangladesh to build any momentum in the chase. Deepti Sharma finished with three wickets, while Prema Rawat and Shree Charani claimed a wicket each. Nandani came back to bowl the final over and finished with two wickets as Bangladesh could only get to 109/7 in their 20 overs.

Congratulations to India for winning the first Semi Final and waiting in the wings to find their opponent.

The wait will be over in about 17 hours and the final match will take place on Sunday at 8PM Indian time.

Cheers..

🏏Women's Asia Cup 2026: Semi Final 2: SL W vs PAK W on 11/09/26🏏

Pakistan seek revenge, Sri Lanka eye another Asia Cup final

Pakistan have not made the final since 2016 while Sri Lanka are looking for their third final appearance in a row

Sri Lanka Women (SL W) take on Pakistan Women (PAK W) in Semi-Final 2 of the Women's Asia Cup 2026 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai on Friday, September 11.

Chamari Athapaththu and Co. topped Group B after registering three wins in as many matches. While their wins against the UAE and Indonesia were comprehensive, they did have to battle hard to win against Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Pakistan finished second in Group A behind India. They won against Thailand and Hong Kong, China quite convincingly. However, India defeated them by seven wickets without any fuss.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka recently played a three-match T20I series in Dambulla. The home side won the series 2-1 but Pakistan did put up a gutsy performance, especially with the bat. If Fatima Sana's women bat well in the semi-final, they have the bowlers to give Sri Lanka a tough time. However, Athapaththu and Co. are slight favourites.

In the spotlight - Harshitha Samarawickrama and Fatima Sana

Being Sri Lanka's trailblazer, there is so much focus on Athapaththu that it is easy to miss that Harshitha Samarawickrama, still only 28, has already completed a decade in international cricket. She is the vice-captain, and almost the captain-in-waiting when Athapaththu decides to relinquish the role. Samarawickrama has grown in consistently winning games for Sri Lanka. Her unbeaten 48 off 37 against Bangladesh on Sunday is a case in point. Moreover, that knock has also highlighted her versatility. Primarily a top-order bat, she was moved down to No. 5 in order to accommodate Vishmi Gunaratne in the middle-order. She batted in that spot at home against Pakistan last month and finished the chase. Expect Samarawickrama to sit easy under the spotlight against Pakistan in a win-or-go-home contest.

Fatima Sana's 407 T20I runs in 2026 have come at a strike rate of 150.74, the fourth-best this year (minimum 300 runs). There were calls for her to bat higher up than her usual Nos. 7 and 8. Add to it, she has picked up 23 wickets, the most for Pakistan. While she has taken five wickets in the Asia Cup thus far, she is yet to show off her batting might. That is partly down to the surfaces in Dubai. Sri Lanka, though, would be a little wary of her considering she can bash spin, and strikes at 143.24 against them.

Team news

With both teams coming off wins, they are likely to go in with the same teams. Sri Lanka might be tempted to play slinger Mithali Ayodhya since it is a knockout match

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Imesha Dulani, 2 Chamari Athapaththu (capt), 3 Sanjana Kavindi, 4 Vishmi Gunaratne, 5 Harsthitha Samarawickrama, 6 Kavisha Dilhari, 7 Nilakshika Silva, 8 Kaushini Nuthyangana (wk), 9 Sugandika Kumari, 10 Chethana Vimukthi/Mithali Ayodhya, 11 Chamudi Praboda

Pakistan (probable): 1 Muneeba Ali (wk), 2 Shawaal Zulfiqar, 3 Gull Feroza, 4 Ayesha Zafar, 5 Sadaf Shamas, 6 Fatima Sana (capt), 7 Umm-e-Hani, 8 Eyman Fatima, 9 Tuba Hassan, 10 Nashra Sandhu, 11 Sadia Iqbal

Pitch and conditions

The temperature is expected to be 36 degrees around the time the match starts (6:30pm local) and is unlikely to get much cooler even later. The pitch in Dubai has been conducive to slower bowling, even if fast bowlers have found a little zip at the start of the game. Teams winning the toss chose to bowl nine teams in the league stages despite the side batting first winning eight of the 12 matches.