After a decent start in the innings, India Women went on to lose three crucial wickets to Inoka Ranaweera in a single over during the opening match played against Sri Lanka of the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.
Inoka went on to bag the wickets of Harleen Deol, Jemmah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur in the 26th over, taunting India in a rain-affected game.
Batting first, India made a slow start, scoring only 43 runs in 10 overs for a wicket. Smriti Mandhana lost her wicket to Udeshika for 8 runs. However, Harleen Deol and Pratika Rawal went on to forge a decent partnership.
After the end of 10 overs, rain stopped the game and and has been reduced into 48 over game.
With Pratika Rawal lost her wicket to Inoka for 37 runs, Harleen Deol and Harmanpreet Kaur joined hand aiming to stabilise the innings.
However, the disaster came in the 26th over where Harleen lost her wicket to Inoka in the first ball.
Inoka Ranaweera did not stop as she picked the wicket of Jemimah Rodrigues in the very next ball for a golden duck. On the verge of hattrick, she went on to deliver her third delivery of the over.
However, she went after Kaur in the fifth delivery dismissing for 21 runs which left India with last five wickets for 121 runs.
Harmanpreet Kaur departs in the same over!!
3 Wickets in an over for Inoka Ranaweera.
India: 122/5 (26) #CricketTwitter #INDvSL #CWC25 pic.twitter.com/AM6vWYSdoh
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) September 30, 2025
Speaking at the toss, Chamari Athapaththu said, “We are bowling first. I am pretty confident about my bowling unit, so we are bowling first. It is a good batting track but there could be some dew later on. We are going with seven batters.”
“The prep has been good. Next five games we are playing in Sri Lanka, I hope we can bring out our best in the camp,” she concluded.
Meanwhile Harmanpreet Kaur said, “We were looking to bowl as well. Looks (pitch) very good, hopefully we will put up a good score. Everyone is fit, we are going in with three spinners and two pacers. She has been fantastic for us, hopefully she (Smriti) continues to do well. Today is a great opportunity to play good cricket again.”
INDW vs SLW Playing 11
India Women Playing 11: Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Sneh Rana, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani
Sri Lanka Women Playing 11: Chamari Athapaththu(c), Hasini Perera, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Vishmi Gunaratne, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani(w), Achini Kulasuriya, Sugandika Kumari, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoka Ranaweera
