India face Sri Lanka in Women’s World Cup opener today:Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma key for hosts as Guwahati braces for action

India Women will face Sri Lanka Women in the tournament opener of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 set to be played at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Tuesday (September 30). In the twelve editions of the tournament that have been played so far, India have only managed to reach the finals once but ended up as the runners-up, losing to England in the title decider. Having said that India Women enter the 2025 World Cup opener against Sri Lanka as firm favourites, backed by a stronger recent record (17 wins in 21 ODIs against Sri Lanka) and the form of their star players. Smriti Mandhana’s prolific run-scoring and Deepti Sharma’s all-round consistency give India stability at the top and in the middle order, while Sneh Rana’s spin threat adds teeth to the bowling unit. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will depend heavily on Chamari Athapaththu’s all-round impact and Harshitha Samarawickrama’s reliability with the bat, alongside rising spinner Dewmi Vihanga, who has impressed with both control and breakthroughs. Match Details- Date Time: 30 September, 3:00 PM IST
Venue: Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati
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Live Telecast: Star Sports Network India-Sri Lanka head-to-head record India-Sri Lanka in men’s cricket is a much closely fought rivalry than in women’s cricket. In women’s cricket, the two teams have come up against each other a total of 35 times with India winning 31 matches and Sri Lanka managing only 3 wins. One match ended without a result. Guwahati pitch report Two matches of the Indian Premier League 2025 season were played here with Guwahati being Rajasthan Royals (RR)’ adopted home. RR batted first and scored 151 in the first match, a total which Kolkata Knight Riders chased down with 15 balls to spare. In the next match, Rajasthan scored 182 runs batting first but Chennai Super Kings (CSK) fell short of their total by 6 runs. If the kind of surfaces for the World Cup are similar to this, then anything around 250-300 could be a challenging score on this surface. The Barsapara surface should favour batting, but with dew likely to influence the second innings, toss and bowling discipline could prove decisive in shaping the outcome. Guwahati weather report There are scattered thunderstorms that are predicted in Guwahati on the match day. That suggests that the captain may look to chase, given the DRS may come into play. Otherwise, the temperatures will hover in the range of 35°C, with humidity around 69% as per Google Weather. Tribute to Jubin Garg at the Opening Ceremony The opening ceremony will be held on September 30 at Barsapara Cricket Stadium before the match between India and Sri Lanka, during which tribute will be paid to the late Singer Zubeen Garg. He passed away on September 19 in a scuba diving accident in Singapore. Some artists, including Shreya Ghoshal, will perform a tribute to Zubeen Garg.