Shafali Verma has been threatening a white-ball hundred for years, and she finally delivered one at the moment it mattered most. Batting first against Bangladesh in the second semi-final of the 2026 Asian Games women’s cricket competition at Kōrogi Sports Park in Nisshin on September 20, Verma clubbed an unbeaten 100 off just 49 balls, laced with nine sixes and three fours, to drag India to 195 for 4 and into the gold-medal final against Sri Lanka on September 22. It was her maiden century in a senior white-ball international for India, arriving in precisely the kind of knockout pressure that has occasionally exposed her in the past.
A hundred that arrived off the very last ball
What made the innings especially dramatic was its timing: Verma reached three figures off the final delivery of India’s innings, a fitting exclamation point on an innings that had gathered momentum steadily through the middle overs before exploding in the closing stages. She was well supported by three-wicket hauls from Nandani Sharma and Deepti Sharma with the ball, but it was Verma’s strokeplay — repeatedly clearing the boundary down the ground and over cow corner — that left Bangladesh chasing a target well outside their recent form against top-ranked opposition.
Building on a stellar month for Verma
The innings capped an extraordinary fortnight for the 22-year-old opener, who had already starred in India’s run to a record eighth Women’s Asia Cup title earlier in September, putting on 129 with Smriti Mandhana against Sri Lanka in the final — the highest opening stand in Women’s T20 Asia Cup history — and bringing up a 24-ball fifty that stands as the fastest half-century in the tournament’s history. Taken together with her Asian Games semi-final century, Verma has effectively cemented her status as the most destructive top-order batter in the Indian women’s setup heading into next year’s global events.
Bangladesh left needing a record chase
For Bangladesh, the target of 196 represented a chase well beyond anything the side has managed against a top-ranked opponent in the tournament, and their innings never got close to matching the required rate. The result extends India’s dominance over Bangladesh in recent multilateral women’s cricket, continuing a run of lopsided results between the two sides across both the Asia Cup and the Asian Games group stages earlier in the same month.
The bigger picture: India’s white-ball depth
Supporters of the Indian setup point to this result as evidence that the side now has multiple match-winners across the top and middle order — Verma, Mandhana and Deepti Sharma all delivering in the same innings is exactly the kind of collective strength selectors want heading into a World Cup year. Skeptics, however, note that both Bangladesh in the semi-final and other sides earlier in the tournament represent a tier below the sternest continental competition, and that the true test of this batting depth will come only when India faces Australia or England in ICC events rather than regional multi-sport competitions.
A semi-final that also rewrote the record books
The innings arrived on the same afternoon that opening partner Smriti Mandhana passed New Zealand great Suzie Bates to become the all-time leading run-scorer in women’s T20 Internationals, adding a second landmark achievement to a match that had already produced one of the standout individual innings of the tournament, and giving India two separate headline storylines from a single semi-final and prompting broadcasters to replay both milestones repeatedly through the evening’s coverage.
What’s next: gold on the line against Sri Lanka
India now face Sri Lanka in Saturday’s final, a repeat of the Women’s Asia Cup final that India won by 72 runs in Dubai on September 13. That earlier result, built on Deepti Sharma and N Shree Charani skittling Sri Lanka for 111, gives India a psychological edge, but Sri Lanka have shown they can trouble the top sides on their day. A win would give India their first Asian Games cricket gold since the sport’s last appearance at the multi-sport event, and would further underline a period of sustained success for the women’s team spanning white-ball formats and continental tournaments through the back half of 2026, giving the squad considerable momentum heading into a home World Cup cycle over the next several years.
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