Shafali Verma lived a charmed life for her stroke filled 64 off 40 balls as India marched into yet another Women's Asia Cup final with a comfortable 40-run win over Bangladesh here on Thursday.
On a slow surface where batting was a struggle for majority of the batters, Shafali stood out with her fluent effort to take India to 149 for six. The Indian opener was dropped as many as three times and she duly made Bangladesh pay for those mistakes.
Considering the conditions and India's bowling resources, the seven-time champions were expected to defend the target and they did rather comfortably, limiting Bangladesh to 109 for 7 in 20 overs.
Bangladesh never threatened India despite the aggressive intent of opener Juairiya Ferdous (14 off 18). Eventually Ferdous and her opening partner Dilara Akter (21 off 26) fell while attempting to clear the mid-wicket boundary. Kranti Gaud's running catch to get ride of Akter was a brilliant effort on an otherwise ordinary day for the fielders.
Like the last game, Pratika Rawal dropped a couple of catches. The Indian spin trio of Deepti Sharma (3/26), Shree Charani (1/14) and Prema Rawat (1/21) too delivered in spin friendly conditions.
It has been a low scoring tournament mainly due to the slow nature of the pitches here. Considering that and Bangaldesh's batting, India knew deep down they had got enough on the board. They will play with either Pakistan or Sri Lanka in the final scheduled for Sunday.
With seven titles (four in 50-over and three T20s), India are the most successful team in the tournament. They had a suffered a shocking loss to Sri Lanka in the previous edition.
Earlier, the Bangladesh bowling attack, which has been impressive in the tournament, was able to keep the accomplished Indian batters quiet for majority of the innings.
In total, four dropped catches let Bangladesh down else India would have struggled to get past the 120-run mark.
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur (24 not out off 28), usually a good player of spin, struggled for majority of her innings only managing four runs off her first 16 balls.
Shafali single-handedly steered India to a competitive total notwithstanding her remarkable stroke of luck, having been dropped on 6, 11 and 56. While the batters in the top four batted at a sub 100 strike rate, Shafali ended with an impressive strike rate of 160 that included three sixes off the spinners.
The destructive opener played her shots all around the park and her innings included a front foot pull off pacer Marufa Akter, reverse sweep and massive hits down the ground off the spinners. India did well to reach 45 for one in the powerplay but could not accelerate in the middle overs.
India's new number three Pratika Rawal (20 off 24) has been under pressure in the tournament but on Thursday she made a sizzling start, a copy book cover drive off Akter. Later in her innings, she came out of the crease to hit a six before falling to the same bowler.
Richa Ghosh (21 off 16) too was slow to get off the blocks but managed to add valuable runs. Skipper Harmanpreet redeemed herself with a couple of sixes towards the end.
