IND vs SL-W, Review | Deepti Sharma and Amanjot Kaur make the headlines as India Women emerge victorious in opening game
Indian Women secure a one-sided win against Sri Lanka Women in the opening game of the ICC Women’s World Cup on September 30 in Guwahati. Deepti Sharma and Amanjot Kaur shine at the Assam Cricket Association as the Women in Blue secure a 59-run win to start their campaign.
Sri Lanka Women won the toss and elected to field first in Guwahati and managed to get the big wicket of Smriti Mandhana in the fourth over. The Indian opener was dismissed while attempting to smash the ball over the cover region, but ended up being caught in the deep off the bowling of Udeshika Prabodhani. Though the early wicket came as a surprise, Partika Rawal and Harleen Deol steadied the ship towards the end of the power play before rain interrupted the game with the score at 43/1. As soon as the weather gods showed mercy, the game was shortened to 48 overs, and Rawal and Deol were cruising along until Inoka Ranaweera broke the 67-run stand in the 20th over. The young opener was dismissed for 37 after giving a simple catch to Vishmi Gunaratne, who took the catch on the second attempt. Ranaweera’s wrath did not end there as she returned in the 26th over and put the hosts in a tricky position by dismissing three more key batters. The 39-year-old left-arm spinner got the scalps of Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur with the Indian score reading 122/5. The game was going the Lankan way as Chamari Athapaththu managed to dismiss Richa Ghosh in the next over, but Deepti Sharma and Amanjot Kaur managed to rescue the team with a crucial seventh-wicket partnership. The duo took the score from 124/6 to 210/6 at the end of 40 overs before rain interrupted the game once again. Fortunately, the showers only lasted for a brief moment and only one over was lost in the process. Deepti and Kaur continued to build their partnership until Kaur’s knock of 57 off 56 deliveries was ended by a stunner by Gunaratne in the 44th over. Though the 103-run partnership came to an end, Deepti along with Sneh Rana ensured that they scored plenty of runs towards the end to take the final total to 269/8. While Deepti scored 53 off 53 balls before being dismissed on the last ball of the 47th, Rana remained unbeaten on 28 off just 15 deliveries.
Sri Lanka Women might have faced an early blow as Kranti Goud knocked over Hasini Perera’s off stump in the seventh over, but Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama steadied the ship towards the end and ended the first nine overs on a score of 45/1. Both batters started to look good at the crease and put on 52 runs for the second wicket before Deepti Sharma managed to get the big scalp of Athapaththu with a toe-crushing yorker after getting smacked for runs by her in the first two overs. As her innings off 43 off 47 finally came to an end, the Lankans struggled to score runs. The problem for the Island nation continued as Samarawickrama was caught plumb in front of her stumps by Shree Charani, and Vishmi Gunaratne also suffered the same result in the next over by Amanjot. With runs hard to come by and wickets falling at regular intervals, the Lankans were in a tough position at 105/4. The problems for the Lankans continued as Deepti Sharma took a couple of more wickets to complete her three-wicket haul. The 28-year-old all-rounder dismissed Kavisha Dilhari and Anushka Sanjeewani as the score read 140/6 after 29 overs. While there was a bit of hope created by a knock of 35 off 29 balls by Nilakshi de Silva, Rana negated the threat as soon as possible after cleaning up the stumps of Nilakshi and Sungandika Kumari. It was a matter of time before the Lankans innings came to an end as the score read 184/8 in 37 overs. As Charani and Rawal got the final two wickets, Sri lanka Women were bowled out for 211 and India Women won the game by 59 runs in the end.
Deepti Sharma was awarded the player of the match for her all-round performance as she scored a terrific half-century and ended with figures of 3/54 in the second innings.
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