Bangladesh thrashed by 10 wickets as India reach women's Asia Cup final

India were at their imperious best as they defeated Bangladesh by 10 wickets in the women's Asia Cup semi-final at Dambulla on Friday.

It was India's third 10-wicket win in their last five Asia Cup matches, showing just how dominant they have been here.

Batting first, Bangladesh's fragile batting order once again got exposed as they lost wickets regularly and managed just 80-8 in 20 overs.

Fast bowler Renuka Singh was the star performer for India with the ball and was rightfully adjudged the player of the match with three wickets for just 10 runs in her four overs. 

"I am very happy. It was a big match for us and to do well is a good feeling. The idea is to work on the basics. I executed what we prepared yesterday. Got a lot of help from the wind blowing across. I like bowling with the new ball and got to bowl my spell early. I was happy with all my wickets because you get rewarded for your work," Renuka said after the match.

Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana Joty once again was the top scorer with 32 runs from 51 balls and really never got going as wickets fell around her at regular intervals.

The wicketkeeper-batter explained how losing wickets in the powerplay took away all the momentum from the Tigresses, that was built from their last two wins.

"We couldn't understand what we wanted. Losing too many wickets in the powerplay hurt. When top order is not making runs, it is difficult for teams to come up with runs," Nigar said at the post-match presentation. 

She felt that the batters have a mental block against the bigger sides like India, something they didn't have in the last two matches against Thailand and Malaysia.

"It is about mentality. They are capable of playing shots, but against India, they play differently. We need to work on our batting, and because of that we are losing games," Joty added. 

With the women's T20 World Cup coming up in October in Bangladesh this year, Joty hopes to "try and rectify" their mistakes ahead of the grand event..

In reply, India chased the total down with ease in 11 overs as Smriti Mandhana shone with an unbeaten 55-run innings from just 39 balls.

Mandhana's opening partner, the hard-hitting Shafali Verma played a more subdued knock of 26 not out from 28 balls.

Radha Yadav was another impressive bowler for India taking three wickets for just 14 runs in her four overs.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur was very happy with the bowling of her side in particular.

"Our bowlers did a great job. Did what we spoke about in the team meetings. Proud of our bowling. Every day, the bowlers are coming up with a positive approach. They are hitting the right lines and lengths, and they give me confidence. Consistency is important for us, we just want to keep doing well," Harmanpreet said in her post-match interview.

The India captain however admitted the pressure they had on them as they have won every edition of the Asia Cup barring the one in 2018 where Bangladesh were victorious against them in the final.

"A lot of pressure on us, because we have been dominating Asian cricket. We want to keep doing what we are doing for a long time. We prepare ourselves very hard in nets so that when we go out there, we don't feel pressure," she explained.