India Women are eyeing another Women’s Asia Cup title after reaching the Final of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2026 Final after comfortably beating Bangladesh Women by 40 runs in the first Semifinal last Thursday (10th September).
After Bangladesh Women chose to bowl first at Dubai, India Women scored 149/6 in 20 overs. In reply, Bangladesh Women were restricted to 109/7 in 20 overs, as India Women comfortably won the match.
Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2026 (1st Semifinal): India Women vs Bangladesh Women – Shafali Verma played powerful knock
Although the Indian opener Smriti Mandhana was dismissed cheaply for two runs in the second over, her opening partner Shafali Verma played a strong knock, while there were some crucial helps from the other end. Shafali had a 50-run partnership with Pratika Rawal for the second wicket and another 33-run partnership with captain Harmanpreet Kaur for the third wicket.
While Rawal scored 20 off 24 balls, Player of the Match Shafali smashed 64 off 40 balls on the difficult batting pitch with the help of seven fours and three sixes. Captain Harmanpreet was more cautious after Shafali set a strong tone, as the skipper scored 24 not out off 28 balls with two sixes, the wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh smashed 21 off 16 balls with two sixes. Deepti Sharma also had a cameo of 13 off just six balls.
Among the Bangladesh bowlers, four bowlers managed to pick up at least one wicket, while Sultana Khatun managed two wickets with the bowling figures of 3-0-30-2.
Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2026 (1st Semifinal): India Women vs Bangladesh Women – Indian bowlers never gave chance
In reply, Bangladesh never challenged the required run rate, which was only climbing. Although all top five batters managed double-digit scores, they failed to attack the Indian bowlers properly, as the strong Indian bowlers controlled the game throughout the entire innings. Only the opener Dilara Akter (21) and middle-order Shorna Akter (22*) managed to reach the 20-run mark out of six double-digit scores in that innings.
Among the Indian bowlers, Deepti Sharma got three wickets with the bowling figures of 4-0-26-3. With the help of two wickets in the final two balls, Nandani Sharma finished with the bowling figures of 2-0-10-2.
Shafali Verma scored 64 runs
It was the third-highest individual score in the knockout stages of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup history. The top two scores in this list are 73 not out by Indian cricketer Mithali Raj (vs Pakistan Women in the 2016 Final) and 69 not out by Sri Lankan Harshitha Samarawickrama (vs India Women in the 2024 Final).
India Women won by 40 runs
It was the second-largest winning margin (by runs) in the history of knockout stages in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup. The record is India Women winning by 74 runs against Thailand Women in the 2022 Semifinal.