Bangladesh had India reeling from the start.
Not for long. Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana Joty called correctly and got to choose and put India into bat, only to see their advantage neutralized straight away when two catches went down with Smriti Mandhana scoring just two runs before being dismissed.
Shafali paid them back in her own way.
With two more lives to go, Shafali quickly took the game away from Bangladesh.
Two back-to-back sixes by Shafali in the fourth over, with Pratika Rawal also managing to clear the boundary, with India scoring 45 for the loss of one wicket in the powerplay. Following this, Shafali added to her tally and managed to register the 20th T20I half-century but had to retire out after scoring 64 off just 40 balls.
Some more errors in the field allowed Richa Ghosh to pick up six runs after the error, followed by quick-fire runs by Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma towards the end. Deepti's quickfire 13 runs from only 5 balls allowed India to finish on 149/6.
As they struggled to reach 150, Bangladesh failed to achieve the desired run rate.
The spinners of India dominated the match with 3/26 from Deepti Sharma, while Shree Charani and Prema Rawat got a wicket each. 109 was the score of Bangladesh when they were all-out in 20 overs.
India’s fielding was not error-free either, as Pratika Rawal made a couple of missed catches to make the dropped catches of day four. It hardly mattered considering that Bangladesh couldn’t even get near that total.
This victory puts India in another continental final and adds to their record that very few other teams can boast of.
The most victorious team from India has performed best in the tournament because of their seven victories, of which four victories were in the one-day format of cricket while three were in the Twenty20 format of cricket. They are supposed to participate in the finals of this game between either Pakistan or Sri Lanka on September 13.
Apart from the game itself, there is another name that has caught everyone’s attention, like the semi-final itself.
The PCB chairman and ACC president, Mohsin Naqvi, will be attending the Women’s Asia Cup 2026 final as chief guest of the concluding event, according to a report in Geo Super—bringing back recollections of last year’s controversy during the men’s final.
This setting precisely tells why his presence is critical this time.
The Indian team had defeated their arch-rivals Pakistan in the final match of the 2025 Men's Asia Cup; nevertheless, the team captain, Suryakumar Yadav, could not snatch away the cup from Naqvi because he was the president of ACC as well as PCB. Consequently, he left the stadium with the trophy that still has not been officially transferred to India.
The ceremony was delayed for about an hour then, with players of India refusing to attend the award ceremony altogether, receiving their personal cheques alone, and skipping Naqvi.
The snub was not left just like that, for BCCI moved on it through the official route.
BCCI made a formal objection to Naqvi at an Asian Cricket Council meeting where his representative, Rajeev Shukla, asked him why he didn't give the trophy to the team that had won and added that it was not "the personal property of any individual." Naqvi apparently remained defiant in spite of the demand. According to Devajit Saikia, the secretary of the BCCI, informal meetings have taken place between Naqvi and the BCCI in the sidelines of ICC meetings in Dubai.
The ICC officials have played the role of mediators in these discussions, which Saikia says, have "broken the ice."
In case India wins the Sunday final match, then it is quite possible that this situation will repeat itself once again.
As president of ACC, Naqvi is supposed to hand the trophy to the victorious teams, and in case the women’s side accepts the trophy from Naqvi, it will be decided by the players themselves. In fact, so far, there has been no announcement by the BCCI as regards this issue.
