Women's Asia Cup: Smriti Mandhana gets pivotal reprieve as Harshitha Samarawickrama commits glaring blunder during final

On the third delivery of the fifth over of the Women's Asia Cup 2024 final, 26-year-old Sri Lankan batter, Harshitha Samarawickrama committed a significant blunder by dropping a sitter offered by Indian star Smriti Mandhana. 

The Indian innings, which commenced with a sluggish pace after electing to bat first, was meticulously contained by the Lankans, who impressively restricted the openers to a score just under a run-a-ball until the fourth over. 

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On the third delivery of the fifth over which was bowled by off-spinner, Kavisha Dilhari, Mandhana lofted a full-length ball to cover, where Harshitha merely needed to take a few steps back to secure the catch to dismantle the opening partnership. However, she utterly botched the straightforward chance and sat on the field in disbelief at her blunder. The cameras immediately panned to skipper, Chamari Athapaththu, who was visibly stunned as well.

The agony and regret for Harshitha and her team intensified on the very next delivery when Mandhana stepped out and lofted a shot towards cover-point. The fielder stationed there mishandled the ball after it landed just short of her, allowing it to race to the boundary to take the score to 30/0 in 4.4 overs.

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To compound Sri Lanka's woes, Mandhana fully capitalized in the next over, smashing three boundaries and undermining their efforts up to that point. This series of events significantly worsened the situation for the Sri Lankan side.

Mandhana reached her fifty in the 14th over of the innings and continued her dominant performance until her impressive innings was halted by a well-executed running catch in the deep by the skipper herself. This dismissal provided Dilhari with Mandhana’s prized wicket, a feat that could have been accomplished much earlier in the match.