The battle of the hosts at the 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup went the way of India in an intriguing match in Guwahati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A crowd of 22,843 were present at the Assam Cricket Association Stadium, breaking the previous record of 15,935 for the highest attendance of a group match at either the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup or ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. And they were treated to a seesaw affair, with India eventually winning by 58 runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the final result was a comfortable victory for the home side, they needed a century stand for the seventh wicket from Amanjot Kaur and Deepti Sharma to rescue a perilous situation with the bat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sharma then played a starring role with the ball, taking three for 54, as Sri Lanka fell short of the 270 runs they needed in 47 overs after the game was shortened due to a couple of rain delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India suffered an early blow when Smriti Mandhana picked out Vishmi Gunaratne at deep point off the bowling of Udeshika Prabodhani for just eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harleen Deol joined Pratika Rawal and the pair proceeded to build slowly, adding 67 either side of a rain delay, before a second catch for Gunaratne, Inoka Ranaweera removing Rawal for 37.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With skipper Harmanpreet Kaur entering the fray, the game was evenly poised, with India 81 for two in the 20th over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pair combined to add 39 in six overs before a dramatic collapse sparked by Ranaweera (4\/46).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The spinner kicked things off by snagging Deol for 48 as she misjudged a lifted drive and chipped to extra cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jemimah Rodrigues was then beaten all ends up and bowled the next ball before a third wicket in the over, the skipper, caught behind for 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly, India were in all sorts of trouble and things got worse when Richa Ghosh found Prabodhani off the bowling of Chamari Athapaththu for two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That brought Amanjot Kaur to the crease, joining Deepti Sharma with India 124 for six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stability was the order of the day and the pair proceeded to bat positively to rebuild, with Amanjot taking a few extra chances on her way to a brilliant 57.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was helped by some fielding errors, dropped three times on her way to a half-century on her World Cup debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually Gunaratne held onto arguably the toughest chance of the lot, a brilliant grab near the boundary off Prabodhani to end the partnership at 103.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A second rain delay had reduced the innings to 47 overs and Sneh Rana made a valuable contribution down the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She hit a pair of sixes on her way to an unbeaten 28 off just 15 balls, while Sharma completed her half-century, going for 53 off the final ball of the innings as India finished on a respectable 269 for eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reply, Sri Lanka made a solid start before Hasini Perera missed a straight one-off debutant Kranti Gaud and was bowled for 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chamari Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama added 52 for the second wicket before Sharma took the all-important wicket of the Sri Lankan skipper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Athapaththu had looked dangerous with four fours and three sixes but was beaten by a full delivery from Sharma, departing bowled for 43.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Samarawickrama was next to go, trapped in front by Shree Charani for 29 with Vishmi Gunaratne (11) suffering the same fate off Amanjot to leave Sri Lanka 105 for four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chase was starting to falter, and Sharma grabbed a second wicket when Kaveesha Dilhari edged one behind for 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sharma continued to chip away, with Anushka Sanjeewani (6) next to go before Sneh Rana got in on the act, getting Nilakshika Silva (35) and Sugandika Kumari (10), both bowled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Achini Kulasuriya fell with 200 not yet up before Pratika Rawal finished off proceedings with eight balls to spare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n India 269\/8 in 47 overs (Amanjot Kaur 57, Deepti Sharma 53; Inoka Ranaweera 4\/46, Udeshika Prabodhani 2\/55)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sri Lanka 211 all out in 45.4 overs (Chamari Athapaththu 43, Nilakshika Silva 35; Deepti Sharma 3\/54, Sneh Rana 2\/32)<\/p>\n\n\n\n India won by 58 runs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The battle of the hosts at the 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup went the way of India in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-3964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-cricket"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t