The Indian women's team have thrashed Nepal in their third and final group-stage game of the Women's Asia Cup on Tuesday, July 23. The Women in Blue have marched into the semifinals with a hat-trick of wins in the group stage of the tournament.
India have finished first in their Group A as they are the only team yet to concede a game from their group. The Women in Blue won all three matches and have a huge NRR too. Pakistan are the second team to reach the semis from the group as a dreaming Nepal team could not stun either of the two to make their way into the last four. The Women in Blue will be playing against the runner-up of Group B which is not confirmed as of now. India's clash in the semis will be on
The Women in Blue made 178 batting first against Nepal. India rested regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur as Smriti Mandhana led the team with Pooja Vastrakar also out due to the same reason. Arundhati Reddy and S Sajana came in the team in place of them.
Mandhana tweaked the batting order a bit, promoting Dayalan Hemalatha to open the innings along with Shafali Verma. While Hemalatha was struggling to score at a good rate, Shafali did the major damage with the bat. Hemalatha did well on her part to play second fiddle to Shafali, who raced to a 26-ball fifty. Sita Rana Magar broke the opening stand when she got Hemalatha for 47 and the 122-run opening stand came to an end. The 20-year-old Shafali was eyeing for a ton but fell 19 short of it on 81 as she was stumped out. Jemimah later powered the finish with a 15-ball 28.
In the defence, India were all over Nepal in this department too. Arundhati Reddy got the opening wicket in the second over as she cleaned up Samjhana Khadka before Renuka struck to remove Kabita Kunwar. India had Nepal 31/2 in the powerplay and then 48/3 at the halfway stage. Not many contributions came from the Nepal batters with Magar being the highest scorer at 18 as Nepal were restricted to 96/9 in the 20 overs.
