After nine years in the history of the Asian Games, Sri Lanka’s women’s cricket team led by Chamari Athapaththu won the silver medal yesterday. In the final of the 19th Asian Games women’s cricket event held in Hangzhou, China, Sri Lanka had to be satisfied with the silver medal after losing to India by 19 runs.

It is special that Sri Lanka won an Asian Games medal after nine years, and it is the third medal won by Lankan cricketers in the history of the Asian Games. In the 2014, Games held in Incheon, South Korea, the Sri Lanka women’s cricket team led by Sasikala Siriwardena won the bronze medal and the men’s cricket team led by Lahiru Thirimanna won the gold medal. However, according to the sports festival, we won a medal this time after eight years. Although Asian Games is being held this year (2023) as it was not held last year, so this is the ’19th Asian Games 2022′ and the 12th silver medal won by Sri Lanka in the history of Asian Games.

This is the third time that the cricket event is being included in the Asian Games, and the second time that the Sri Lankan women’s team participated. In the final held at the Sheijung University Cricket Ground in Hangzhou yesterday, the Indian team scored 116 runs for the loss of 7 wickets, while the Sri Lankan team could only score 97 runs for the loss of eight wickets at the end of the 20 overs.

The loss of three top -order wickets for 14 runs including captain Chamari Athapaththu was a big loss for Sri Lanka. Hasini Perera scored 25 runs, Nilakshi de Silva made 23 runs and Oshadhi Ranasinghe chipped in with 19 runs but failed to lead the team to victory. Titas Sadhu, who posed a big threat to Sri Lanka by taking all three wickets, finished her four overs with a maiden over giving only 6 runs.

Batting first, Smriti Mandana scored 46 runs and Jemima Rodrigues made 42 runs, while the rest of the players could not cross the 10-run mark. Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoka Ranaweera and Sugandhika Kumari took two wickets each.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh won the bronze medal in the women’s cricket event. In the match held yesterday morning, Pakistan, who won the gold medal in the last two series, lost to Bangladesh. Bangladesh had won the silver medal by becoming the runners-up on both occasions. The Bangladesh players, who batted first in yesterday’s match, limited the Pakistan team to 64 runs in 18.2 overs. The medal was secured for the loss of five wickets.

Swimming

Akalanka Peiris, who entered the second race of the men’s 50m backstroke preliminary round of the swimming event yesterday, set a new Sri Lankan record. Although he recorded a time of 26.01 seconds in this event, his performance was not enough to qualify for the final due to the fact that he finished 10th among all the swimmers. Akalanka yesterday renewed the record he had set last year (26.12) In the same event. Ganga Seneviratne, who entered the fourth round of the women’s preliminary round, finished the event in 31.73 seconds, and she also could not qualify for the final after finishing in 8th place.

Taekwondo

Starting the taekwondo events at this year’s Asian Games, Sri Lankan player Charinda Sampath, who took part the first match of the round of 32 in the 58 kg male weight class, defeated Cambodia’s SAM Youdeth 2-0 and entered the round of 16. Chalinda won the first round with 14-4 points and the second round with 15-8 points. However, Chalinda lost 2-0 to South Korea’s JANG Jun in the round of 16. In this event, from the women’s 49 kg weight class, M.I. Pushpa Kumari was supposed to compete but she did not join the competition due to illness.

Judo

Chamara Nuwan Dharmawardena, the only Sri Lankan participating in the Judo event, lost 10-0 to Chyngyzkhan of Kyrgyzstan yesterday morning.

Rowing

In the Men’s Single Sculls Final B event of the rowing event, Mohammad Nafiran, who entered the ‘B’ group final, finished fourth, while Maheshi Liyanage, who entered the women’s final, finished fifth. Four competitors from Sri Lanka participated in the rowing event. They returned to Sri Lanka yesterday.

Two wins for Rugby

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan rugby team, which had to compete for the 9-13 positions due to the loss of both preliminary round matches in the rugby event, recorded a 36-10 victory over Afghanistan in the match played yesterday morning. At the end of the first half, Sri Lanka was leading 12-10. In the second match against the Philippines yesterday afternoon, Sri Lanka won 21-12. In the first half of the match, Sri Lanka was leading 14-7.

Lankan athletes will arrive in Hangzhou today

Nine athletes from Sri Lanka will reach Hangzhou today. The team includes Kalinga Kumarage, Aruna Darshan, Pabasara Nikoo, Rajitha Rajakaruna, Dinuka Deshan, Pasindu Kodikara, Rumeshika Ratnayake, Nadisha Ramanayake, Sayuri Mendis and Jayesh Uttara, who arrived in Nanjing, China three weeks ago to join a special training camp. 16 Sri Lankan athletes were nominated for this year’s sports festival, out of which Yupun Abeykoon and Ushan Thivanka pulled out. The rest of the team members, Tarushi Karunaratne, Sarangi Silva and Dilhani Syratke, are arriving in Hangzhou from Sri Lanka today, while Gayanthika Abeyratne arrived in China early to join the opening ceremony.