The Indian team won the gold medal at the Asian Games on Tuesday, defeating Sri Lanka by a margin of 147 runs. This success marks India's second consecutive gold medal at the Asian Games, following their triumph at the 2022 Games in China.
A more touching moment was the joint participation of the Indian team with Pakistani players during the award ceremony, as Pakistan secured the bronze medal after beating Bangladesh. After receiving their medals, the Indian players joined the players from Pakistan and Sri Lanka for a group photo.
On the podium, the players stood in the second row, while those in the first row were seated, holding their medals with wide smiles. India's captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, stood next to Pakistan's captain, Fatima Sana, and they smiled and posed together with their respective medals.
In recent years, matches between India and Pakistan, in both men's and women's cricket, have been marred by unpleasant incidents, including instances of Indian players refusing to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts. These tense diplomatic relations between the two southern neighbors, which followed the military conflict in May 2025, have extended to cricket since last year. Therefore, the joint photograph of the Indian and Pakistani players on the field was a welcome change.
However, India showed outstanding performance on the field, winning the final against Sri Lanka by a score of 216-3, which was the highest score in women's cricket at the Asian Games, thanks to 18 overs and 13 sixes. For India, this is the first gold medal at the 2026 Asian Games tournament, which will be held in Japan from September 19 to October 4. Furthermore, it was the second consecutive triumph for the Indian women's team, which recently won the Asia T20 Cup in Dubai by convincingly defeating Sri Lanka in the final.
On Tuesday, against the same team, India was once again unbeatable when batting star Mandhana delivered a magnificent performance: 79 runs off 45 balls (seven sixes and five fours) at the Korogi Athletic Park stadium in Nagoya. Her opening partner Shafali Verma (48 runs off 29 balls) and number four Rich Ghosh (49 runs without dismissal off 22 balls) also played excellently, dealing a serious blow to Sri Lanka's attack.
In response, Sri Lanka was bowled out for a modest 69 runs in 15.4 overs, despite the contribution of Chamari Athapaththu, who scored 29 runs. Mandhana stated: 'It's good that we won the first gold for India. It's an incredible feeling. We have seen other athletes win gold on television, but it feels great to be on the podium.'
Harmanpreet highly praised the contribution of the batters in achieving the convincing victory. She noted: 'It was good to see Smriti and Shafali give us a strong start again, and among all the partnerships, they were very important. They worked excellently, and I think we were able to achieve what we wanted as a batting unit in the end.' Harmanpreet added that the Asian Games gold holds a special place in her heart: 'We are not used to (playing in a multi-sport event like the Asian Games). It means a lot to us, and we are very happy to have opened this door, and hopefully, we will see many more gold medals (for India)'.
Earlier, Captain Fatima Sana was the star when Pakistan defeated Bangladesh by 31 runs in the bronze medal match. Sana's brilliant 45 runs off 30 balls helped Pakistan reach 145 runs, while Bangladesh could only manage 114 runs for seven wickets.
