• Source:JND
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IND-W vs PAK-W, Women's World Cup: A bizarre interruption marred the highly anticipated India-Pakistan encounter at the R. Premadasa Stadium during the 2025 Women's ODI World Cup, as ground staff were called in to execute pest control measures, bringing play to a brief pause.

Colombo's recent period of continuous rain has started a shocking challenge for the players, with a bug infestation sweeping across the outfield and causing visual distress and distraction for both teams during the match.

After 34 overs, the match officials decided to take a short pause, leaving the field to allow ground staff to conduct a thorough cleanup and eradicate the bug infestation.

The interruption, though unexpected, will not affect the match duration as it is understood that the expected halt of 15 minutes will be compensated by shortening the innings break, and no overs will be deducted.

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At the time of interruption, India had reached 154/4 in 34 overs, with Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma unbeaten on 28 and two respectively.

Pushed into batting first, India began positively as Smriti Mandhana pulled Sadia Iqbal for four, before Pratika Rawal brought out punches and a leaning drive to take a hat-trick of boundaries off Diana Baig.

Smriti unfurled the square drive, deft dab and crunchy cut to take three boundaries off Diana, and even survived an lbw appeal off her, as replays showed the ball pitching miles outside leg-stump.

But Pakistan pulled things back when skipper Fatima Sana Khan trapped Smriti lbw with a nip-backer, as the India vice-captain also burnt a review. With the need to get the scoring rate up, Harleen Deol got going by cutting late off Rameen Shamim for four, before dancing down the pitch to loft over long-on for six.

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Pakistan again struck when Pratika shaped to punch a back-of-the-length arm-ball angling in from Sadia, but was left seeing her off-stump being pegged back. Though Harleen and Harmanpreet Kaur cracked a boundary each, Pakistan's disciplined bowling meant they couldn't really break free.

That effort brought reward for Pakistan as Diana had Harmanpreet tickling one down leg to keeper Sidra Nawaz just before the halfway mark of the innings. Diana had Jemimah Rodrigues caught behind, but her joy flipped into frustration as replays showed she overstepped at the crease, giving the batter a big reprieve.

After that, Jemimah got her boundaries via pull, sweep, and late-cut, before surviving a run-out after being nearly three-fourths of the way down the ground. But Harleen, in a bid to get going, holed out to long-on off Rameen for 46. 

Though Pakistan will be the happier side, they will also be cautious of the fact that Jemimah being in switched-on mode means she can take India to a competitive total, especially with Richa Ghosh still to come.

(With Agency Inputs)