India registered a massive win by 88 runs against Pakistan in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo on Sunday. With the win, Harmanpreet Kaur's team extended its unbeaten streak to 12 over the arch-rival.
The two teams maintained the no-handshake policy that was followed during the Asia Cup by the men's teams at the toss and after the match.
The match was not void of drama as there was confusion with the toss, a controversial run out and a 15-minute delay to to bug infestation on the field.
"Very happy, very important game for all of us, and I'm sure everyone back home is happy as well," Kaur said at the post-match presentation.
"It wasn't an easy pitch to bat on, we wanted to bat longer and see how many runs we can get. It wasn't an easy pitch. It's been raining, and there was a hold on the pitch. We wanted to keep wickets in hand. The key was keeping wickets, Richa batted really well and gave us that crucial 30 runs," she added.
Batting first, India were bowled out for 247 runs with Harleen Deol contributing 46 runs while Richa Ghosh added a quick 35, though most batters struggled to convert their starts on the slow pitch.
Pakistan's chase began poorly and they lost three wickets inside the powerplay. They were eventually bowled out for 159 in 43 overs.
Sidra Amin top scored with 81 runs off 106 balls, while Natalia Pervaiz contributed 33 runs.
India's bowling attack proved effective with Kranti Goud taking 3/20 and Deepti Sharma claiming 3/45. Shree Charani also contributed with 2/38.
"Our bowling was great. Kranti bowled really well, she was outstanding and Renuka helped her in getting the breakthroughs. We created so many chances, unfortunately, we dropped it, but in the end when you win you are happy," Harmanpreet said.
"There are a lot of areas but we are happy we won, just want to go with the momentum. Now we go back to India, we know how the pitches play there, we will look at the combinations and what team we need to play," Harmanpreet said reflecting on the need to improve.
The two teams maintained the no-handshake policy that was followed during the Asia Cup by the men's teams at the toss and after the match.
The match was not void of drama as there was confusion with the toss, a controversial run out and a 15-minute delay to to bug infestation on the field.
"Very happy, very important game for all of us, and I'm sure everyone back home is happy as well," Kaur said at the post-match presentation.
"It wasn't an easy pitch to bat on, we wanted to bat longer and see how many runs we can get. It wasn't an easy pitch. It's been raining, and there was a hold on the pitch. We wanted to keep wickets in hand. The key was keeping wickets, Richa batted really well and gave us that crucial 30 runs," she added.
Batting first, India were bowled out for 247 runs with Harleen Deol contributing 46 runs while Richa Ghosh added a quick 35, though most batters struggled to convert their starts on the slow pitch.
Pakistan's chase began poorly and they lost three wickets inside the powerplay. They were eventually bowled out for 159 in 43 overs.
Sidra Amin top scored with 81 runs off 106 balls, while Natalia Pervaiz contributed 33 runs.
India's bowling attack proved effective with Kranti Goud taking 3/20 and Deepti Sharma claiming 3/45. Shree Charani also contributed with 2/38.
"Our bowling was great. Kranti bowled really well, she was outstanding and Renuka helped her in getting the breakthroughs. We created so many chances, unfortunately, we dropped it, but in the end when you win you are happy," Harmanpreet said.
"There are a lot of areas but we are happy we won, just want to go with the momentum. Now we go back to India, we know how the pitches play there, we will look at the combinations and what team we need to play," Harmanpreet said reflecting on the need to improve.
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