MUMBAI: India star player Smriti Mandhana received a warm welcome at Mumbai airport on Wednesday after winning gold medal at the 19th edition of the Asian Games.
Many fans and family members gathered at the Mumbai airport to welcome the gold medalist, when she returned to Mumbai from China.
A stellar spell from Titas Sandhu and magnificent spin bowling from Deepti Sharma and Devika Vaidya helped India defend a fair total of 117 runs to clinch the gold medal in the women’s cricket tournament at the ongoing Asian Games, beating Sri Lanka in the final match by 19 runs on last Monday.
Following this, Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian women’s team secured cricket gold in their first Asian Games outing.
Women in Blue opted to bat first and set a target of 117/7 after Smriti Mandhana played a stunning knock of 46 runs. Meanwhile, Jemimah Rodrigues played a 42-run inning.
For Sri Lanka, Udeshika Prabodhani took 2/16, Inoka Ranaweera scalped two wickets for 21 runs while Sugandika Kumari also cleared up two scalps for 30.
Chasing a low target, India restricted Sri Lanka to 97/8 to win the first-ever gold.
Titas led the bowling lineup and took three wickets for just six runs. Rajeshwari Gayakwad took two wickets while Devika Vaidya picked up one wicket.
On the other hand, the Indian men’s cricket team will play their first match on October 3 in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
India men’s team squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (Wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (Wk), Akash Deep.
Standby players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan. (ANI)