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India vs Bangladesh Women’s Asia Cup 2026 semi-final is over. After that, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur opened up about the performance of his side in the match against the Women in Green. India Women’s National Cricket Team defeated Bangladesh Women’s National Cricket Team by 40 runs as they qualified for the final of the tournament for the second consecutive year.
Speaking after the win, Harmanpreet Kaur credited Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma and India’s spin department and was happy with the team's overall performance. Harmanpreet Kaur also spoke about how the game was a good one, with the spinners dominating and restricting the Bangladesh side to just 109/7 runs in the game, and registering a win in the match in dominating fashion.
Shafali Verma pays back Bangladesh for dropped catches
Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana won the toss and opted to bowl first. Both teams played the same team in their final group stage games against Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), respectively. India had a steady start, with openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana being cautious. The former was dropped on 6 runs, but Bangladesh soon capitalised as they dismissed Smriti Mandhana.
Smriti Mandhana was dismissed for yet another low score, as she was back for just two runs. However, then a tough chance was dropped by Bangladesh fielder Shafali, and after that she punished them with a fantastic fifty in the match; she stitched a partnership with Pratika Rawal, who scored 20 runs.
Later, Harmanpreet Kaur, who struggled to score runs in the initial phase, scored some runs in the latter phases as she was unbeaten on the score of 24 runs, and there was some firepower from Richa Ghosh, who scored 21 off 16 balls, and Deepti Sharma scoring 13 runs off 6 deliveries. As they posted 149/6, Sultana Khatun picked up two wickets.
Bangladesh fails to chase 150 runs
Coming out to chase, they had a cautious start, with the Bangladesh openers Dilara Akter and Juairiya Ferdous. Shree Charani gave India the breakthrough as she dismissed Juairiya Ferdous for 14 runs. Then Deepti Sharma bagged the second wicket, dismissing Dilara for 21 runs. After that, the wickets kept on falling, and they never recovered.
Deepti Sharma, Shree Charani, and Prema Rawat were yet brilliant as they did their job in the middle overs; Bangladesh batters could never go big against spinners and lost the match as they scored 109/7 in their 20 overs, as Deepti Sharma picked three wickets.
"Really happy": Harmanpreet Kaur happy with India's win
Harmanpreet Kaur was happy after India's win; she reflected that both teams' bowlers, especially the spinners, bowled well, and she also believed that there was a lot of assistance for the spinners.
Harmanpreet Kaur said, "[Happy with how the team performed today?] Definitely. The way things are going, really happy with the way we have been batting and bowling. [How did the pitch behave during the second innings?] There was value for good balls. If you were giving revs to the ball, there was value to that ball."
"Deepti was excellent": Harmanpreet Kaur praises Deepti Sharma
Kaur praised Richa Ghosh's quick innings and also credited Deepti Sharma for her three-wicket spell. She feels that the wicket-keeper batter played some excellent shots in the match.
She further added, "Both teams' spinners bowled really well today. Batters were trying hard to get those runs, but there was a lot for the spinners, and they used this pitch really well. [On small contributions from Deepti and Richa] The small partnerships were there, especially when you have a pitch like this where you don’t know how (things) are going to be, so small things matter a lot."
"All the partnership (that) we had today while batting, those were very crucial, and even Richa Ghosh's batting. She played a few really good shots. And with the ball, Deepti was excellent. Whenever we needed, she came up and gave us breakthroughs."
