Mir led Pakistan to a resounding 10-wicket victory over Bangladesh in Friday's Twenty20 women's final, sparking celebrations on and off the field.

“We have floods, terrorism and so many other bad things happening back home, but today's gold medal will give enough reasons to our people smile,” Mir said.

Recent floods have displaced millions of people in Pakistan and suicide bombings have claimed innocent lives.

Frequent power failures are another big problem for the government.

In sports, Pakistan's men cricket team has been caught up in a corruption controversy with three of its players being suspended over allegations of spot fixing during a test match against England in August.

“What I am interested in is that the way we have played today, it's good for people of Pakistan,” she said.

Mir did not want to be dragged into the controversy surrounding Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, whose cases will be heard by International Cricket Council's anti-corruption tribunal in January.

“Whatever is happening (in match fixing allegations) so far we even don't know whether it's true or false,” Mir said.

Mir took two wickets with her off-spin bowling, but the architect of victory was allrounder Nida Rashid with four wickets for 16 runs and a 43-ball 51 runs, which featured seven boundaries.

The win brought instant rewards for Mir's team as Pakistan sports officials handed a cash reward of $1,000 to manager Ayesha Ashar soon after the medal ceremony.

Pakistan team players counted the money in a loud voice “one, two, three.....” as retired general Arif Hasan and Arif Siddique handed over the cash to Ashar.

The team will surely be rewarded with more prize money as the government has already promised 10 million rupees ($117,00) for gold medal performances at the Asian Games.

Friday's gold was the first for Pakistan in eight years at the Asian Games, since boxer Mehrullah won gold at Busan in 2002.

Despite knowing little about the rules of the cricket, around 2,000 Chinese spectators cheered Pakistan to win the final. Pakistan Olympic Association chief Hasan was more vocal than even the public address system announcer, and also got good support from Chinese spectators.

Two traders from Pakistan — Javed Iqbal and Shaukat Ali — were among a handful Pakistani spectators present at the Guanggong Cricket Stadium and got emotional after the victory.

“Sana, Sana please have a photograph with me,” shouted Iqbal from the stands after the medal ceremony.

“I really want to have a photo with her, but the organizers are not allowing me to come onto the field,” Iqbal said as he stood behind the railing with Ali.

The 26-year-old Iqbal hails from Peshawar - capital of troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province - and has been doing business in Guangzhou for the last six years.

He described Friday as the “historic day” and said he had tears in his eyes when Pakistan's flag was hoisted at the medal ceremony and the national anthem was played.

“It were tears of joy,” Iqbal said.