India collected back-to-back victories at the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup, defeating Pakistan by 88 runs in Colombo on Sunday. The result looked less than certain once they slipped to 203 for 7, but Richa Ghosh’s rapid, unbeaten 35 from 20 balls pushed them to 247 – a total that proved comfortably beyond Pakistan once the spinners took charge.
“To be honest, it wasn’t an easy pitch to bat,” Harmanpreet Kaur admitted afterwards. “We just wanted to bat longer and see how many runs we can get… The key was to keep wickets in the end so that we could execute.” Ghosh did exactly that, shepherding the tail and finding the square boundaries that had eluded her team-mates for most of the afternoon.
Kranti Goud, still only 22 and playing just her fourth ODI, then ripped through Pakistan’s top order. Her new-ball burst – Sadaf Shamas and Aliya Riyaz both nicked off inside ten overs – set the tone, and her final figures of 3 for 20 earned the Player-of-the-Match award. “Kranti bowled really well,” Harmanpreet said. “Renuka [Singh] was helping her from the other end, to get breakthroughs for us.”
Once the gloss of swing disappeared, Deepti Sharma (3 for 45) and Sneh Rana slowed things right down, persuading batters into mis-hits as the required rate crept north. Pakistan never really found a platform; opener Sidra Amin survived three drops in a scratchy 42, and the innings subsided to 159 all out with nearly nine overs unused.
Fielding remains India’s lingering worry. Four catches went down, several regulation, and the ground work was untidy. Harmanpreet did not dodge the subject: “We let ourselves down on the field, we got so many chances which we unfortunately dropped, but in the end, when you win, you feel happy.”
Momentum, though, is building. The side had relied on the lower order two days earlier against Sri Lanka, and the middle-order wobble here will not please the coaching staff. Yet the dressing-room mood is upbeat as the tournament now shifts to Visakhapatnam, where India face South Africa on 9 October and Australia three days later.
“There are a lot of areas to work on but right now I’m happy that we won this game,” Harmanpreet concluded. “We just want to go with that momentum. We go back to India now, where we know how the pitches will play. Let’s see what is the best combination that we can come up with and how we can improve day by day.”
Small issues remain – dropped chances, middle-overs drift with the bat – but two wins from two represents a solid start. If India tidy up the edges, especially in the field, they will travel to the business end of the competition with genuine confidence, rather than mere hope.
