Asian Games 2026: India to face Sri Lanka in gold medal final on September 22

India's women's cricket team continues to dominate the 2026 Asian Games. Team India beat Bangladesh by a huge margin in the semifinal to book their place in the final. India will now face Sri Lanka for the gold medal. The final will start at 10:30 am Indian time on September 22. The bronze medal match between Pakistan and Bangladesh will be played earlier the same day at 5:30 am.

India had also won gold at the last Asian Games in 2023, and the team's full focus this time is again on the gold medal. India did not lose a single match at the recent Asia Cup, showing the team is in excellent form. Notably, India and Sri Lanka had also met in the Asia Cup final, where India won comfortably to claim the title.

Before the semifinal, India had beaten Japan in the quarterfinal. Batting first against Bangladesh in the semifinal, India set a target of 196 runs. Shafali Verma scored an unbeaten 100 off just 49 balls in that innings, setting several big records. Smriti Mandhana contributed 37 runs and captain Harmanpreet Kaur added 40. In reply, Bangladesh's batting collapsed and the team was bowled out for just 81 runs. Spinners Nandini Sharma and Deepti Sharma took three wickets each for India. India won the match by a big margin of 114 runs.

In the other semifinal, Sri Lanka faced Pakistan, and Pakistan could not hold their own against Sri Lanka. Pakistan scored 177 runs for the loss of 4 wickets, but Sri Lanka chased down the target easily, losing just 2 wickets. Chamari Athapaththu played an unbeaten innings of 83 runs. With this win, Sri Lanka also entered the final in style, and have already secured at least a silver medal. All eyes are now on who will win gold in the high-voltage final on September 22.