India win fourth Women's Asia Cup

Jhulan Goswami reached the milestone of 100 wickets for India © Getty Images

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India retained their iron-like grip on the ICC Women’s Asia Cup by winning the competition for the fourth successive time.

India beat the hosts Sri Lanka by 177 runs at Kurunegala, extending their Asian Cup winning streak to 22 matches and ensures that no other country has yet won the title.

Victory in the final capped a peerless championship for the Indian ladies, who also beat Bangladesh by 182 runs and five wickets, Pakistan by 182 runs and 207 runs and Sri Lanka by 29 runs and eight wickets en route.

Sri Lanka never looked likely to reach India's formidable 260 for seven, which owed much to Asha Rawat's 97, Mithali Raj's 66 and Rumeli Dhar's 50.

The home side then crashed to 83 all out in reply.

The continental cup win cements India’s position as one of the favourites to win the Women’s World Cup, which takes place in Australia next year.

India captain Raj said: “I am delighted with my team’s performance in the tournament. It was a nice start to what is going to be a tough season for us.

“We tried new players and experimented with different combinations during the competition.

“I am glad that everything worked well for us and we maintained a high level of consistency which was the perfect icing on the cake.”

Raj was the highest run-scorer in the tournament with 226 runs, but Rawat was declared player of the final for her knock of 97, the highest score of the tournament.

Mithali and fast bowler Jhulan Goswami achieved personal milestones in the course of the tournament.

When Mithali reached 62 during her knock of 66 in the final, she became the first Indian and fifth overall in the history of women’s cricket to complete 3,000 ODI runs.

The India captain joined the Australian duo of Belinda Clark (4,844) and Karen Rolton (4,261), New Zealand’s Debbie Hockley (4,064) and England’s Charlotte Edwards (3,304)

Jhulan, who won the ICC Women’s Player of the Year Award at the ICC Awards in Johannesburg last year, became the second India bowler and fourth after Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick (180), team-mate Neetu David (141) and Clare Taylor of England (102) to take 100 wickets in ODIs.

Mithali Raj led from the front with 222 runs, passing 3,000 in ODIs

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Mithali added: “I consider it as a great honour and privilege to be bracketed with some of the biggest and most respected names in women’s cricket.

“I didn’t give it a thought while I was batting in the final as my focus was on collecting as many runs as possible in the final overs until I got a message from the dressing room that I was close to the 3,000-mark.

“To be in the top five leading run-getters’ list is a big honour and I hope to score many more runs for India,” said Mithali.

Explaining the reasons for including new faces while also recalling two experienced players, Mithali said the tour was planned keeping in mind Australian conditions.

“We wanted to provide the right platform for the youngsters to show their talent and Sri Lanka was the best place because of the similarities in the Asian sub-continent conditions which made it relatively easy for the new players to show their skills.

“I am happy to say that we have a good pool of players with whom we will work over the next nine months not only to give them the required experience but also to find the combination which will help us in Australia.

“We know that the World Cup will be staged in conditions that will be friendlier to the fast bowlers, and that’s precisely why we gave more opportunities to the fast bowlers without relying heavily on the spinners.”

Bangladesh women secured their first victory against a full member of the ICC when they defeated Pakistan by four wickets.

Captain Salma Khatun guided Bangladesh home as they chased 135 with little more than five overs to spare.

Pakistan did at least manage to end their 12-match losing streak in the tournament by winning the return match against Bangladesh by 38 runs.

Javeria Khan stole the limelight with figures of 8.1-4-8-6.

Sri Lanka won all their matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh but failed to break India’s stranglehold in their three clashes.