First gold for India at Asian Games 2026: Women's cricket team beat SL in f...

The Indian women’s cricket team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur opened India’s gold medal tally at the Asian Games 2026 on Tuesday, securing a win against Sri Lanka in the finals at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, Japan. The win ends India’s wait at the top-podium finish at this edition of the Asian Games.

The defending champions, India produced a dominating performance in the gold-medal match. After choosing to bat first, they posted a huge total of 216/3 before producing another brilliant performance with the ball, and restricting the Lankan women to a partly score of 69, sealing a commanding victory by 147 runs.

The result gave India their first Gold and their overall seventh medal at the Asian Games 2026 with the total medal tally now standing at one gold, four silver and two bronze medals. Indian opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, and wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh were the chief architects behind India’s mammoth total.

Mandhana scored a blistering 79 off 45 balls, and Shafali, in her usual aggressive style, got off to a good start from the get go and registered a score of 48 of 29 deliveries. Then Richa gave the team the perfect finish, scoring a blitzkrieg 49 off 22 balls and remained unbeaten.

During their innings, the Indian batters scored freely and never let any Sri Lankan bowler settle into a rhythm; they cleared the ropes 13 times with relative ease. This helped them post the highest-ever total in Women’s cricket at the Asian Games. Indian skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur too chipped in with a few important runs, scoring 19 runs. But it was Richa Ghosh that kept India’s scoring-rate high after the openers were dismissed, taking India’s total past 200-run mark and set Sri Lanka a stiff challenge.

With the ball, Deepti Sharma was once again the start of the show, as she led the bowling unit with aplomb. She picked three wickets for six runs. Fellow spinners, Shreyanka Patil, Shree Charani and Shafali Vermall all contributed with two wickets each as Sri Lanka was bundled out for a modest total.

India and Pakistan Now Have Two Asian Games Cricket Gold Medals

The win over Sri Lanka means India now has two women’s cricket gold medals at the Asian Games, having won the gold in the previous edition of the games in 2023. Their triumph on Tuesday now puts them at level with Pakistan who won the Women’s cricket gold medals in 2010 and 2014.

The men’s competition will begin later on September 28, and Shreyas Iyer will lead India. The Indian men’s team are also the defending champions and they will look to add another gold to India’s medal tally.