Sri Lanka secured their first Women's Asia Cup title win Sunday, beating India with a clinical run-chase in front of home fans.
This was also just the second time in their nine final appearances that India failed to win the Women's Asia Cup.
The previous such instance was in 2018, when Bangladesh beat India by three wickets.
Harshita Samarawickrama was named the Player of the Final, and Chamari Athapaththu the Player of the Tournament for her 304 runs and three wickets.
Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bat first in the final.
India got off to a positive start, but Sri Lanka struck back in the middle overs, with the wickets of Shafali Varma (16), Uma Chetry (nine) and Harmanpreet (11).
Contributions from Smriti Mandhana (60 from 47), Jemimah Rodrigues (29 from 16), and Richa Ghosh (30 from 14) helped India to 165/6.
In response, Sri Lanka had an early setback when Vishmi Gunaratne was run out for one.
However, Sri Lanka's experienced skipper Athapaththu settled in, and got good support from Samarawickrama.
After a watchful start, getting only 28 runs in the first five overs, Sri Lanka took 16 off the sixth over.
The hosts made the most of this boost, and kept going at their target at a steady pace.
Despite losing Athapaththu (61 from 43) in the 12th over, Samarawickrama (69* from 51) and Kavisha Dilhari (30* from 16) helped Sri Lanka finish the game in the 19th over.
This win is another feather in the cap for Athapaththu's Sri Lanka.
They won the Women's Twenty20 World Cup Qualifier earlier in the year to qualify for the Women's T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
Prior to that, they had secured a 2-1 series win over South Africa away from home.
BRIEF SCORE
Sri Lanka 167/2 (Samarawickrama 69*, Athapaththu 61, Dilhari 30*) beat India 165/6 (Mandhana 60, Ghosh 30, Dilhari 2/36) by 8 wickets
Women's Asia Cup winners
Year Format Winner
2004 ODI India
2005-06 ODI India
2006 ODI India
2008 ODI India
2012 T20I India
2016 T20I India
2018 T20I Bangladesh
2022 T20I India
2024 T20I Sri Lanka
