Amanjot, Deepti lift India to 269 after middle-order collapse

India's opening powerplay went at barely four an over, and in the middle of their innings, they lost four wickets for just four runs. However, a counterattacking seventh-wicket stand of 103 from 99 balls between Amanjot Kaur and Deepti Sharma, along with Sneh Rana's devastating 28-run cameo, meant India still posted a healthy 269 for 8 at the end of their rain-shortened 47-over innings.

Sri Lanka for their part did themselves few favours in the second half of the innings, dropping Amanjot on four different occasions - 18, 37, 50 and 53. Even if a wet ball courtesy the intermittent rains could be cited as a mitigating factor, it was just the sort of fortune India needed after their innings had been in danger of going off the rails near the halfway point.

Inoka Ranaweera was the pick of the bowlers, ending with figures of 4 for 46 in nine overs - though she could have had a five-for, if not for being one of the players to drop Amanjot. Ranaweera though is the oldest bowler, at 39, to pick up a four-wicket haul in a women's World Cup. Until India's late onslaught, her intervention had been poised to be the defining moment of the innings.

In her first over, Ranaweera broke a slow-burn second-wicket stand of 67 from 96 between Pratika Rawal and Harleen Deol. The immediate period after the rain stoppage had seen scoring slow to a trickle, but a six down the ground from Rawal - the first of the tournament - in the 16th over signalled India's intent to shift gears.

The next three overs went for 22 runs, but just as the momentum seemed to be shifting in India's favour, Rawal expertly found the fielder at deep midwicket, while attempting to take on Ranaweera early in her spell.

This, however, brought Harmanpreet Kaur to the crease, and with her came more concerted intent. Her stand with Deol produced 39 off 35, and it was beginning to look ominous as Deol - who had started slowly by even her usual standards - too began to up the ante. But just two runs short of her fifty, Deol chipped one gently to extra cover.

That was the start of Ranaweera's match-turning spell, as she spun the next one down the line past Jemimah Rodrigues' forward defence to peg back off stump. Three deliveries later she had Harmanpreet caught behind. India had gone from 120 for 2 to 121 for 5 in the space of five deliveries. Seven deliveries later they were 124 for 6 as Richa Ghosh slapped a veritable gimme ball, straight to cover point.

At that point India would have been grateful to reach 200, but such was the quality of the counterattack and Sri Lanka's lack of quality in the fielding department, that India ended up close to what they might have been aiming for initially, having been put in to bat.

Rana's belligerence at the death will rightly take many of the plaudits. Her 15-ball cameo brought two fours and two sixes, helping India score 34 runs off the final two overs. But it was the sometimes fortune-laden partnership between Amanjot and Deepti that truly changed the complexion of the game.

The pair did well to keep the scoreboard ticking at around a run-a-ball, ensuring that a defendable total was first secured before launching into a late assault that pushed the team into imposing territory. Their ability to do so was, however, aided by Sri Lanka's poor catching, which let them down at crucial moments.

Of the many chances Amanjot provided, the first was a skier dropped by Achini Kulasuriya, who never quite settled under it at deep square leg. Had that been taken, India would have been seven down for 162. The second was a slightly tougher opportunity - spilled on the run at long-off by Nilakshika Silva. The third, and arguably the easiest, was a return catch off a leading edge put down by Ranaweera.

Only the final missed chance could be classified as genuinely difficult: Vishmi Gunaratne couldn't hold on after a desperate forward dive at deep midwicket. The irony was that Gunaratne eventually took a spectacular diving catch at square leg - sprinting to her right - to finally dismiss Amanjot for 57.

It was a display in sharp contrast to the discipline Sri Lanka had shown in the first half of the innings, when India's top order was stifled by tight bowling and sharp fielding.