Amanjot, Deepti rescue India after batting scare

In the end, India got everything they could have wanted out of the opening match of the Women's ODI World Cup 2025. While the result will no doubt be the most important factor - a comfortable 59-run, DLS-adjusted win - they will be pleased that every member of their batting unit was tested and that most of them were up for it. So a middle-order collapse of 4 for 4 became a footnote and questions about their intent without a meaningful contribution from Smriti Mandhana were left for another day.

One area India won't have any qualms with is their allrounders department. Deepti Sharma was the star in Guwahati as her run-a-ball 53 clawed them out of a considerable hole, before her 3 for 54 helped stifle Sri Lanka's chase.

Amanjot Kaur, who shared the new ball, struck a 56-ball 57 in a 103-run seventh-wicket partnership alongside Deepti, which revived India from 124 for 6 at the end of the 27th over.

Sneh Rana, meanwhile, showcased her power hitting in a 15-ball 28, before producing the most economical spell of the day, one that was rewarded with a wicket towards the end of the game.

It meant that India's seventh and eighth wickets accounted for 145 runs, collectively more than the six wickets that preceded them. The hosts ended on a fairly imposing 269 for 8 in a rain-reduced 47-over innings.

And with the ball, the same players involved in those crucial partnerships strangled Sri Lanka's chase. Chamari Athapaththu looked to be closing in on some of her best form, but Deepti removed her with a yorker for a 47-ball 43. Vishmi Gunaratne has been a reliable run-getter for Sri Lanka, but Amanjot trapped her leg before after a pained 28-ball 11. All the while, Rana was as miserly as ever at the other end, before belatedly halting Nilakshika Silva's threatening cameo of 35 from 29. At 140 for 6 in the 29th over, Sri Lanka's task seemed a stretch too far.

Wickets were spread around each of India's five frontline bowling options, with Kranti Goud and Shree Charani also getting in on the action. India will be extremely pleased at having so many players who could impact the game with both bat and ball.

Sri Lanka, in their revised chase of 271, kept a steady scoring rate of about five an over, though once Athapaththu fell it seemed fanciful to imagine they would be able to up the scoring to consistently above six an over, let alone the eight per over required-rate that was needed as the game went along.

That Sri Lanka had to chase so much from how well-placed they had been midway through India's innings was largely of their own making, having dropped 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 gone off the rails near the halfway point.

Losing Mandhana early is never ideal, after she sliced one to deep point, but the lack of intent shown by the rest of the batting order against a disciplined, but not exactly threatening Sri Lankan seam contingent, might have been alarming. Pratika Rawal and Harleen Deol put on 67 but it came off 96 deliveries.

Rawal fell just as she was beginning to accelerate, Inoka Ranaweera breaking the stand with the second delivery of her opening spell. The left-arm spinner was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka, 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 ODI World Cup. Until India's late onslaught, her intervention had been poised to be the defining moment of the innings.

That intervention occurred in her third over and the 26th of the innings. Harmanpreet Kaur and Deol were in the midst of a momentum-shifting 39-run stand when Deol chipped one gently to extra cover. Ranaweera then spun the next one down the line past Jemimah Rodrigues' forward defence to peg back the off stump before having having 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 off Athapaththu.

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 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: 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. For India, they will be pleased with how they responded in the face of adversity, but will know they have vast space for improvement going forward.