Nasir, Nawaz reach Sindh Challenger final

India’s women declined to receive the Asia Cup trophy from Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President Mohsin Naqvi after beating Sri Lanka by 72 runs in Dubai on Sunday, in the latest episode to strain cricketing ties between India and Pakistan. India sealed the title with a commanding victory but did not come out of their dressing room to collect the trophy from Naqvi, who had travelled to Dubai to attend the presentation ceremony in his capacity as ACC president. Naqvi is also the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Pakistan’s interior minister. ACC sources said from Dubai that the trophy presentation protocol had been agreed in advance and that the trophy was available to be presented to the winners. They added the Indian team itself decided not to receive it from Naqvi. The Asia Cup trophy impasse continued for the second year in a row after the victorious Indian women’s cricket on Sunday did not accept the cup from Mohsin Naqvi, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chairman from Pakistan The presentation ceremony was delayed by nearly 50 minutes,… pic.twitter.com/TdrnrXefJa — Cricinfo (@cricinfo) September 13, 2026 “Our position has not changed,” one source said. Naqvi had not moved from his earlier position and remained in the same position on Sunday, the source added, referring to last year’s incident when India’s men’s team declined to receive the Asia Cup trophy from Naqvi after winning the men’s tournament. The incident comes amid already strained cricketing relations between the two neighbours, whose sporting ties have been affected by wider political tensions. The 2025 men’s tournament was also overshadowed by India’s no-handshake with Pakistan controversy. Later, India’s under-19 side also declined to receive medals from Naqvi after finishing runners-up in a tournament in Dubai, with the medals subsequently presented by an Afghanistan Cricket Board official. Read: Sri Lanka knock Pakistan out, set Asia Cup final with India Pakistan’s Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry criticised India’s decision. “India is unable to digest its defeat on the military and diplomatic front and has dragged politics into sports,” Chaudhry said. In the past, India’s decision not to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, which Pakistan hosted, had been a bad precedent of India’s stance to drag politics into sports. The tournament was subsequently played under a hybrid arrangement, with India’s matches moved to a neutral venue. Under the arrangement, India-Pakistan matches in ICC events are also scheduled to be played at neutral venues through 2027. India complete an unbeaten campaign to secure their eighth Women’s Asia Cup title 🇮🇳🏆 📝: https://t.co/n0D6WSbmIj pic.twitter.com/Fv9C4I8EMo — ICC (@ICC) September 13, 2026 The rivalry has extended beyond cricket. India had also prevented its men's blind cricket team from travelling to Pakistan for the Blind Cricket World Cup a few years ago. Around the same period, India also did not allow its kabaddi team to travel to Pakistan. In 2019, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended the allocation of an Olympic qualification event to India after Pakistani shooters were unable to obtain visas for a 25-metre rapid-fire pistol World Cup event in New Delhi. Such decisions have increasingly brought political tensions into regional sport, undermining the spirit of competition and damaging the sporting culture of the region. This is an unfortunate trend that does little to promote goodwill or healthy sporting relations between the two countries. Earlier, Shree Charani claimed four wickets as India crushed Sri Lanka by 72 runs to win the Women’s Asia Cup for a record eighth time. India posted 185-5 from their 20 overs after openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana laid the foundation with aggressive half-centuries. Shafali top-scored with 68, while Mandhana made 59 as the pair gave India a commanding start before Sri Lanka’s bowlers fought back in the latter stages of the innings. Sri Lanka struggled in their chase as Charani and Deepti Sharma dismantled the batting lineup. Charani finished with four, while Sharma took three. Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu was their leading scorer with 36 from 32 balls, while Vishmi Gunaratne and Nilakshi de Silva also managed to reach double figures as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 113. India captain Harmanpreet Kaur praised her team’s consistency throughout the tournament and said they had maintained the standards they had set for themselves. “We know they are a great team. But we played to our standards. We set high standards for ourselves, and we wanted to keep matching them,” Kaur said after the match. “Very happy with the way we all performed. The openers did a great job for us. The way Shafali and Smriti bat like they did. Great to see someone like Shafali take responsibility through the tournament with the bat and ball.” Athapaththu acknowledged that Sri Lanka had failed to produce their best performance in the final but said the team would use the defeat as motivation ahead of the Asian Games. “This is part of the game: one team wins, one team loses. But at the end of the day, we did not play our best game in all three departments. They played very well. But we will bounce back,” she said. “We played really good cricket throughout the tournament, but today we struggled a little bit.”