IND-W vs SL-W

The start to the day was not ideal for the Indian fans. A long delay due to rain was followed by a shaky start from the batters. However, the three all-rounders — Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaura and Sneh Rana — forged a spirited comeback and then even made sparkling contributions with the ball to ensure that their team kicks off their campaign with a win.

Though, Harleen Deol not taking the field in the second innings is a bit of a concern going forward. Meanwhile, despite patches of brilliance, Sri Lanka still finish the night with questions aplenty to ponder upon.

Remember, both teams will now head to Colombo, where — over the weekend — Athapaththu and co. will take on the mighty Aussies, while India will lock horns with arch-rivals Pakistan. However, tomorrow, the attention will move to Indore where reigning T20 champions New Zealand clash with the defending champions.

Do join us for each of those games. For now, this is Darpan Tikiya signing off on the behalf of Sourabh Agrawal and the rest of the team. Sayonara!

Harmanpreet Kaur (India captain): "It was not an easy game. We know that every game in an ICC tournament will be high pressure. The way Deepti and Amanjot handled the situation was really good to watch. The way all the girls came together and contributed for the country was really good to watch. Having batting till number 7 is a key for us. Both Amanjot and Deepti were outstanding today. Harleen also played a good role today. Kranti has been a wicket-taking option for us. Amanjot can also bowl from the other end with the new ball. Sneh Rana also bowled crucial over. Charani's spell was also good. All did what we were expecting. I think Harleen will be fine."

Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka captain): "We executed our plans, but we dropped a few catches. Those mistakes cost us. Inoka bowled really well. She has experience. But the others need to step up. We will need to rethink our plans before the next game. Still, we are calm. I have faith in our youngsters. If Harshitha, Vishmi and Kavisha can perform, we will be good. We batted really well in the powerplay. After we lost my wicket, we struggled in the middle. If you keep losing wickets, it is never easy to chase down. We will bounce back."

Deepti Sharma has been named as the Player of The Match for her all-round performance (53 off 53 with the bat & 3/54 with the ball), here are her words: "That partnership (with Amanjot) was a turning point because we had lost back-to-back wickets so we wanted to take it to the 47-48th over. We executed what we had planned. I did not feel any pressure as I've encountered these situations before as well, I was enjoying my batting. On these kind of wickets, I try to back my stock ball and my strengths and deliver for the team. The first match always sets the tone, we have a lot of positives in this team, we hope to keep performing like this and keep winning throughout the tournament."

11:32 PM IST: India Women win by 59 runs (DLS).

Amanjot Kaur 57 (56) & 1/37 (6) | Deepti Sharma 53 (53) & 3/54 (10)
Chamari Athapaththu 43 (47) & 1/24 | Inoka Ranaweera 3 (8) & 4/46 (9)

Kaur and co. begin their campaign in this home World Cup on a winning note. On paper, it might look like an easy win, but it was far from a cakewalk. 

India were rocked early. Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Richa Ghosh and Jemimah Rodrigues failed to get going. The score reading 124/6 in 27 overs would have made their fans sweat. But India's decision to opt for batting depth at the expense of a 6th bowling option paid dividends. 

Deepti Sharma and Amanjot Kaur combined to stitch a fighting 103-run partnership. The fielding lapses contributed as much to that stand as Deepti's grit and Amanjot's spirited strokeplay. Sri Lanka dropped multiple catches, allowing India to come back. Towards the fag end, Sneh Rana played a sprightly cameo to propel the team to a healthy score of 269/8 in the allotted 47 overs (yep, we had some rain.)

Chasing 271 (DLS), Athapaththu led her team to a solid start. Her 47-ball-43 looked purposeful and well-planned-out. The most interesting bit in that knock was her decision to attack Deepti Sharma from ball one. Initially, her charge appeared to be putting the bowler off — her first two overs yielded 23 runs. But the skipper still continued with Deepti and the latter repaid the faith by knocking the SL captain over. That wicket was followed by 9 successive boundary-less overs that sucked the air out of the run chase.

Eventually Sri Lanka were bundled out for 211, falling well short of the target. Apart from their skipper, only Nilakshi de Silva showed fight. For India, every bowler who rolled her arm over got a wicket at least. Rana and Charani finished with two. The former was seen struggling with heat and had to go off the park in between to put her feet in ice, but came back well to bowl an excellent spell of 10-0-32-2.

45.4 Pratika Rawal to Inoka Ranaweera, UP GOES THE FINGER AND THAT SHOULD BE THAT unless Sri Lanka can reverse this decision with a review, Ranweera has decided to send this upstairs. Her only hope there would be some bat on it.

A straightforward delivery at the stumps, sliding in and Ranaweera plays for the turn. Gets hit on the pads and the finger goes up immediately.

Three reds on UltraEdge which means that India have begun their home World Cup campaign with a convincing win. They were tested, not that straightforward as one might've though but it is a pretty handy win for the hosts in this World Cup opener who have opened their account with a 59-run victory.

45.1 Pratika Rawal to Inoka Ranaweera, goes for the scoop, does not get bat and gets hit on the pads, but this is a free hit so it does not matter. Two leg-byes taken as that rolled towards the fine leg region 

45.1 Pratika Rawal to Inoka Ranaweera, short of a length on the off side, punched to mid-wicket. Sloppy from India, an extra fielder outside the ring and that will be a no-ball

Just going through the motions now. 2 overs to go. Remember, Kranti Goud cannot bowl any more as only two bowlers were allowed to deliver 10 overs. Pratika Rawal [2-0-6-0] gets another over. 

44.1 Shree Charani to Udeshika Prabodhani, tosses this one outside off, Prabodhani comes forward and slices it off the outer half, the fielder at backward point fumbles and concedes one