Shafali steers India to Women’s Asia Cup final

Considering the conditions and India’s bowling resources, the seven-time champions were expected to defend the target and they did rather comfortably, limiting Bangladesh to 109 for 7 in 20 overs on Thursday. Shafali Verma lived a charmed life for her stroke filled 64 off 40 balls as India marched into yet another Women's Asia Cup final with a comfortable 40-run win over Bangladesh.

On a slow surface where batting was a struggle for majority of the batters, Shafali stood out with her fluent effort to take India to 149 for six. The Indian opener was dropped as many as three times and she duly made Bangladesh pay for those mistakes. Bangladesh never threatened India despite the aggressive intent of opener Juairiya Ferdous and Dilara Akter.

The Indian spin trio of Deepti Sharma, Shree Charani and Prema Rawat delivered in spin friendly conditions. It has been a low scoring tournament mainly due to the slow nature of the pitches here, and India knew deep down they had got enough on the board. They will play with either Pakistan or Sri Lanka in the final scheduled for Sunday.

With seven titles, India are the most successful team in the tournament despite having suffered a shocking loss to Sri Lanka in the previous edition. India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and other batters also contributed valuable runs to secure the victory.