Massive image – Can Sri Lanka expose India’s center order?
It is a rematch of the 2023 Asian Video games remaining as India meet Sri Lanka with gold on the road as soon as once more. Either side have comfortably made the ultimate. India brushed apart Japan and Bangladesh within the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, whereas Sri Lanka did the identical towards Malaysia and Pakistan.
There’s loads of familiarity too, with the edges having met lower than ten days in the past within the Girls’s Asia Cup remaining. India cruised to a 72-run victory that day and can once more begin as favourites to defend their Asian Video games gold.
If Sri Lanka are to discover a weak spot on this India batting line-up, it might lie within the center order. Harmanpreet Kaur scored 40 within the semi-final however has struggled for fluency of late, whereas G Kamalini and Bharti Fulmali have returned underwhelming numbers regardless of getting alternatives larger up the order. Attending to them, although, means discovering a well beyond Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, each of whom have kind and up to date centuries on their facet, whereas Richa Ghosh stays able to altering an innings rapidly down the order.
Chamari Athapaththu stays Sri Lanka’s largest match-winner, however she has acquired extra help from the highest order just lately, with Hasini Perera contributing a 26-ball 42 towards Pakistan, Kavisha Dilhari a 27-ball 44* towards Malaysia and Harshitha Samarawickrama fast cameos in each video games. How Sri Lanka deal with India’s spinners could possibly be central to the ultimate, notably with Deepti Sharma and Shree Charani among the many wickets, and earlier than that there’s Nandani Sharma’s new-ball menace to barter.
Sri Lanka know what occurs when India are allowed to dictate a sport. Their finest likelihood in Nagoya could come from placing India beneath stress early on, and whether or not that is with bat or ball will rely on which means the coin falls on the toss.
Ought to the sport be a washout, like the lads’s remaining in 2023 was, the higher-seeded crew (India) will take the gold medal.
India WWWWW (final 5 accomplished T20Is)
Sri Lanka WWLWW
The 2 groups have met 32 occasions in T20Is, with India successful 26 video games, Sri Lanka successful 5, and one match having no end result. Sri Lanka have misplaced their final seven T20Is towards India and received solely as soon as of their final 11 conferences.
Within the highlight: Athapaththu and Shafali
The 2 most harmful batters on both facet might have an outsize affect on the ultimate. Athapaththu has smacked 63 and 83 not out in her two outings at these Asian Video games whereas additionally returning figures of two for 3 and 1 for 30. Shafali had scores of 64 and 68 in her final two outings earlier than the Asian Video games, and has adopted these up with unbeaten scores of 40, in a chase of 57 towards Japan, and 100 towards Bangladesh. Given the size of the bottom in Nisshin, both might rapidly take the ultimate away from the opposition.
Each groups have totally match squads, and fielded their first-choice XIs within the semi-finals.
India (possible): 1 Smriti Mandhana, 2 Shafali Verma, 3 G Kamalini, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Richa Ghosh (wk), 6 Bharti Fulmali, 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Shreyanka Patil, 9 Kranti Gaud, 10 N Shree Charani, 11 Nandani Sharma.
Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Imesha Dulani, 2 Chamari Athapaththu (capt), 3 Hasini Perera, 4 Kavisha Dilhari, 5 Harshitha Samarawickrama, 6 Hansima Karunaratne, 7 Kaushini Nuthyangana (wk), 8 Rashmika Sewwandi, 9 Mithali Ayodhya, 10 Chamudi Praboda, 11 Sugandika Kumari.