NAGOYA, Japan (AP) — India handed Sri Lanka a crushing 147-run defeat to win the women's T20 cricket gold medal at the Asian Games on Tuesday.
Led by Smirti Mandhana’s 79 and equally splendid contributions from Shifali Verma (48) and Richa Gosh (49), India posted its third-highest T20 score of 216-3 winning the toss and electing to bat.
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Sri Lanka's CJK Athapaththu Mudiyanselage reacts after getting out by India's Deepti Sharma during the women's gold medal T20 cricket game between India and Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Nisshin, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
India's Shafali Verma celebrates with teammates the wicket of Sri Lanka's Imesha Dulani Witharana during the women's gold medal T20 cricket game between India and Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Nisshin, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
India's Smriti Shriniwas Mandhana bats during the women's gold medal T20 cricket game between India and Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Nisshin, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Indian players celebrate after winning the women's gold medal T20 cricket game between India and Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Nisshin, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Sri Lanka, which chased down its biggest-ever T20 score of 177 to beat Pakistan in the semifinals, succumbed to Indian spinners and was bowled out for 69 in 15.4 overs. Captain Chamari Athapaththu was the top scorer with 29 off 21 balls.
In a repeat of the 2023 final won by India, Sri Lanka crashed against Deepti Sharma, who bagged three wickets for just six runs off her four overs. Verma (2-3), Shree Charni (2-13) and Shreyanka Patil (2-9) also shared six wickets between them.
Athapaththu’s dismissal in the seventh over saw Sri Lanka lose its last eight wickets for just 26 runs.
Earlier, left-handed Mandhana and Verma set the tone of a mammoth total with their 99-run opening-wicket stand in 10 overs as Sri Lankan bowlers gave away too many boundary balls.
Verma smashed three sixes and three fours before she was caught at short third while attempting a reverse hit. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s struggle continued in the tournament with another unimpressive knock of 19 off 17 balls, but Gosh and Mandhana ensured India set up a stiff target.
Mandhana smashed seven sixes and five fours in 45 balls before she holed out in the outfield in the 17th over, before Gosh’s onslaught, which featured three sixes and six fours, provided a perfect finish.
Gosh smashed fast bowler Mithali Ayodhya for two sixes and a boundary in the final over which cost Sri Lanka 25 runs.
Earlier, Pakistan clinched the bronze medal by beating Bangladesh by 31 runs. Captain Fatema Sana made 45 in Pakistan’s score of 145-8 and spinner Umm-e-Hani grabbed 3-10 as Bangladesh was restricted to 114-7.
See AP’s full cricket coverage here
Sri Lanka's CJK Athapaththu Mudiyanselage reacts after getting out by India's Deepti Sharma during the women's gold medal T20 cricket game between India and Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Nisshin, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
India's Shafali Verma celebrates with teammates the wicket of Sri Lanka's Imesha Dulani Witharana during the women's gold medal T20 cricket game between India and Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Nisshin, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
India's Smriti Shriniwas Mandhana bats during the women's gold medal T20 cricket game between India and Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Nisshin, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Indian players celebrate after winning the women's gold medal T20 cricket game between India and Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Nisshin, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
LONDON (AP) — A new book published Tuesday by the brother of the late Princess Diana has made headlines around the world with its damning allegations about Diana's ex-husband, now King Charles III, and reopened decades-old wounds within Britain's royal family.
In “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” Charles Spencer alleges that he argued with the then-Prince Charles over palace plans for Prince William and Prince Harry, then 15 and 12, to walk behind their mother's coffin during her 1997 funeral procession.
Spencer says he told Charles that Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris at the age of 36, would not have wanted her boys to undergo the ordeal. He claims the prince “went ballistic” during the argument, and told him: "Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough." Spencer also accuses Charles of having “contempt” for his ex-wife and of sounding “elated” after her death.
After excerpts of the book were published last week, Buckingham Palace responded with a strongly-worded statement that's rare by the measured standards of the royal household.
“His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss,” it said.
Spencer has stood by his claims, insisting to the BBC that he is telling the truth. On the royal rebuttal, he asked: “Is he furious? Is he furious or is he embarrassed?”
Charles, then 32, married 20-year-old Lady Diana Spencer in a lavish ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1981. The couple divorced in 1996, and a decade later Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla.
Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, has long clashed with the royals over their treatment of his older sister.
Tensions between the palace and the Spencer family following her death were dramatized in the film “The Queen” and the Netflix series "The Crown."
In a searing eulogy at his sister’s funeral, Spencer vowed that her “blood family” would carry on her “imaginative and loving” legacy in raising her two sons. The speech was widely considered a swipe at the royal family.
At the time, many in Britain and beyond felt Queen Elizabeth II and the royals were too slow to acknowledge the global outpouring of grief over Diana's death and that the monarchy was deeply out of touch with the public mood.
The royals have spent decades putting that period of crisis behind them. The warmer, more personable approach of William and Harry — and, in recent years, the king — is a legacy of that time.
In his book, Spencer also criticized the royals for what he described as a “lack of obvious care” for the then 12-year-old Harry.
He recounted how “tiny, and slight, and bereft” his nephew looked after the funeral. “He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him,” he wrote. “But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control.”
Some critics have questioned why Spencer felt the need to revisit the pain and trauma 30 years on.
The aristocrat said he wanted to write down his own thoughts and memories about Diana, “once and for all, rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others, many of which are based on untruths.”
Asked if the relationship between the press and Harry and his wife, Meghan, mirrors the way the media treated his sister, Spencer told the BBC: “(Diana) was really brought low by all that criticism. I suppose it's a pity when I see echoes of that now.”
Penguin Press said the book will be published globally and translated into 12 languages.
A member of staff put out copies of the new book by Earl Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, entitled "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," on sale in a bookshop in central London, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Copies of a new book by Earl Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, entitled "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," on display in a bookshop in central London, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
A man holds a copy of the new book by Earl Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, entitled "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," outside a bookshop in central London, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Britain's King Charles III gestures at The King's Foundation's Harmony in Food and Farming Summit, at the Foundation's headquarters in Cumnock, Scotland, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026.(Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
FILE - Diana, Princess of Wales waves to the crowd as she leaves the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney Australia, Friday, Nov. 1, 1996. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - From left: Britain's Prince Philip, Prince William, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry and Prince Charles walk outside Westminster Abbey during the funeral procession for Diana, Princess of Wales, Sept. 6, 1997. (AP Photo/Jeff J. Mitchell, Pool, File)
