The Day Bangladesh’s Women Beat India to Win Their First Asia Cup

On 10 June 2018, in Kuala Lumpur, Bangladesh’s women’s cricket team beat India by three wickets in the final of the Women’s Twenty20 Asia Cup — a result that, on paper, looked like an upset but was in fact the culmination of a tournament in which Bangladesh had already beaten India once before.

That earlier meeting, in the group stage on 6 June, mattered as much as the final itself: Bangladesh’s seven-wicket win was their first-ever victory over India in a women’s international match, and India’s first defeat in the history of the Asia Cup. It reset expectations for the rest of the tournament. Bangladesh went on to win four of their five group matches to reach the final, where they faced an Indian side chasing its seventh consecutive Asia Cup title.

Set 113 to win, Bangladesh got there with three wickets in hand and the full 20 overs used — a tense, low-scoring chase that ended in a title no team other than India had ever won in the competition’s history. It was Bangladesh’s first Asia Cup title in either the men’s or women’s game, and it remains the only instance in the tournament’s history that India has lost the final.

The victory landed differently than a typical trophy. Women’s cricket in Bangladesh had operated for years in the shadow of the men’s team’s far larger following and funding; a maiden continental title, won specifically at India’s expense, gave the program a moment of validation it had never had before. It remains the benchmark achievement that every subsequent Bangladesh women’s squad has been measured against.