On Sunday, October 5, India defeated Pakistan by 88 runs in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 clash at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo to register their second straight win in the tournament. After posting a competitive total of 247 runs on the board, India never allowed Pakistan batting lineup to push them at any stage in the contest to get the better of them in a Women’s One Day International (WODI) format for the 12th time in a row.
After controversially winning the toss, Pakistan captain Fatima Sana decided to put India into batting first before the openers Pratika Rawal and Smriti Mandhana built the first wicket stand of 48 runs. Sana opened up an end for Pakistan by trapping Mandhana lbw for 23 off 32, and just a few overs later,
Sadia Iqbal cleaned up Pratika Rawal for a well made 31 off 37 with five fours, leaving India in some trouble at 67-2 in the 15th over of the innings.
Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur wasn’t able to come to terms with the conditions before losing her wicket to Diana Baig with just 19 runs scored in 34 balls in the 25th over of the innings when they had gone past the 100-run mark. While there were no fifty-run partnerships throughout the entire Indian innings, some decent contributions from their batters allowed them to reach just about par total on a pitch at the R Premadasa Stadium providing some assistance to everyone.
Harleen Deol, who had come out to bat at No. 3, ended up being the top scorer for India with her 46 off 65, which had four fours and a six, sharing a 45-run stand for the fourth wicket with Jemimah Rodrigues before Rameen Shamim dismissed her. Just a few minutes later, Rodrigues was trapped lbw by Nashra Sandhu for 32 off 37 after hitting five fours of her own in front of a sporadic crowd in attendance in Colombo.
After India went past 200-run mark in the 45th over, they lost the wickets of all-rounders Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma in quick succession in their 20s, leaving Richa Ghosh with the tail, but she scored an unbeaten 35 off just 20 with three fours and a six to take her team to 247 all out in 50 overs despite Diana Baig taking four wickets. In the run chase, Pakistan had a horror start despite Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur blowing up a couple of DRS and not taking them when the batters were out on three occasions, to get reduced to 26/3 in the 12th over.
Following the dismissals of Muneeba Ali, Sadaf Shamas, and Aliya Riaz for single digits, with the latter two falling to Kranti Goud, there was a 69-run stand for the fourth wicket between Sidra Amin and Natalia Pervaiz. These two batters kept Pakistan hanging in the contest until Goud came back into the attack to dismiss Pervaiz after she scored 33 off 46 with four fours in her innings.
The Indian spinners Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana came into the game from this point onwards, taking wickets of Pakistan middle to lower order in quick succession with Sidra Amin holding her end up. When Rana got Amin out for 81 off 106 with nine fours and one six in the 40th over, Pakistan found themselves nearly out of the contest at 150/8 before getting bowled for 159 runs, and then, Kranti Goud got the player of the match award for her three top order wickets.
