India won gold before buying it
Harmanpreet Kaur’s team beat Sri Lanka by 147 runs to retain the Asian Games women’s cricket title and give India its first gold of the 2026 Games.
India retained the Asian Games women’s cricket title with a 147-run win over Sri Lanka.
India’s women’s cricket team supplied the first gold medal of the 2026 Asian Games on Tuesday, beating Sri Lanka by 147 runs in the final. India made 216/3 before dismissing Sri Lanka for 69, according to published match reports.
Harmanpreet Kaur captained the side, which retained the title India won at the 2022 Hangzhou Games. Smriti Mandhana scored 79, Shafali Verma made 48 and Deepti Sharma took 3/6, the figures doing rather more work than the usual medal-ceremony adjectives.
Deepti told NDTV: “I think we should win gold before buying it.” India’s first gold of the Games has therefore arrived through cricket, not a slogan, a shopping list or a ministerial appeal. The BCCI had announced the squad as defending champions; they have now defended it on the field.