First gold for India at Asian Games 2026: Harmanpreet Kaur-led ladies’s cricket staff beats Sri Lanka in closing

NEW DELHI: Harmanpreet Kaur-led India opened their gold medal account on the Asian Games 2026 on Tuesday, defeating Sri Lanka within the ladies’s cricket closing at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin to finish the nation’s look forward to a top-podium end in Aichi-Nagoya.The defending champions produced a dominant efficiency within the gold-medal conflict, first posting a mammoth 216/3 after opting to bat earlier than bowling out Sri Lanka for simply 69 to seal a commanding 147-run victory.The end result gave India their first gold and seventh medal total on the Asian Games, with the tally now standing at one gold, 4 silver and two bronze medals.Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh had been the architects of India’s imposing whole. Mandhana smashed 79 off 45 balls, whereas Shafali contributed 48 off 29. Richa then offered a spectacular end, remaining unbeaten on 49 off simply 22 balls.India’s batters cleared the boundary 13 instances throughout their innings as they posted their highest-ever whole in ladies’s cricket on the Asian Games.Mandhana and Shafali gave India a flying begin, including 99 for the opening wicket earlier than the latter was dismissed for her brisk 48. Mandhana continued her assault and introduced up her half-century earlier than finally falling for 79.Harmanpreet made 19, however Richa ensured there was no let-up in India’s scoring charge. Her unbeaten cameo, which included six fours and three sixes, took India previous the 200-run mark and set Sri Lanka a frightening goal.With the ball, India maintained their dominance. Deepti Sharma (3/6) took three wickets, whereas fellow spinners Shafali Verma (2/3), Shreyanka Patil (2/9) and Shree Charani (2/13) claimed two wickets every as Sri Lanka had been bowled out for a modest whole.

India be part of Pakistan with two Asian Games cricket golds

The triumph means India now have two ladies’s cricket gold medals on the Asian Games, having additionally gained the ladies’s cricket gold for the nation in 2023.India had not participated when cricket featured on the Asian Games in 2010 and 2014. Their 2023 title and Tuesday’s triumph now put them degree with Pakistan, who gained the ladies’s cricket gold medals in 2010 and 2014.The males’s competitors will start later within the Games, with the Shreyas Iyer-led Indian aspect scheduled to start out their marketing campaign within the second quarterfinal on September 28. India are additionally the defending males’s Asian Games champions.

Shooting, MMA add six medals earlier than cricket gold

India had entered Tuesday’s cricket closing with six medals from the primary two days of competitors — 4 silver and two bronze — with capturing accounting for 5 of them.On Day 2, Himanshu Dhillon gained silver and Rudrankksh Patil bronze within the males’s 10m air rifle particular person occasion. Dhillon completed second behind China’s Olympic champion Sheng Lihao, who efficiently defended his Asian Games title with 254.2 factors, whereas Patil secured bronze with 230.9.Dhillon and Patil then mixed with Parth Mane to assert one other silver within the males’s 10m air rifle staff occasion, taking India’s capturing haul to 5 medals.India’s different Day 2 medal got here from Suchika Tariyal, who made historical past by changing into the nation’s first Asian Games medallist in blended martial arts. She was awarded bronze after her semifinal towards Singapore’s Hui Hoon Teo resulted in a draw, with Teo advancing beneath the competitors’s tie-break rule after Suchika was round 700 grams heavier on the morning weigh-in.India’s first medals of the Games had additionally come from capturing on Day 1. Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Uttam Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod gained silver within the ladies’s 10m air rifle staff occasion earlier than Valarivan added one other silver within the particular person competitors.Valarivan shot 252.4 within the closing, ending behind Japan’s Hinata Taichi, who gained gold with a Games-record 253.0. South Korea’s Ban Hyojin took bronze with 230.4.After two days and not using a gold, India’s ladies’s cricketers lastly put the defending champions on high of the rostrum — and did so in emphatic trend.The cricket gold additionally lifted India to seven medals: one gold, 4 silver and two bronze, offering a major enhance to the nation’s marketing campaign because the Aichi-Nagoya Games transfer into their subsequent section.