By the end of the first sentence of her conversation with the scribes about India World Cup batting depth, Amanjot Kaur had the room in splits, half apologising, half-joking as she went along that she had been “deadly serious” about being nervous about India’s request to field for them that day as she didn’t want to go down in history as the debutant for either her India World Cup middle order or—if she had it in her—the one-liners.

Half jest, half legend; there was no doubt though about the steely resolve behind those words. The very kind of grit India would require when staring down 124 for 6 at the start of their 2025 World Cup campaign against Sri Lanka at home.

India had gone into early World Cup test India with a settled, in-form top five to bank on; cricket, of course, loves to have a laugh at the best of plans. There was an easy, calm, if not a little bit tentative feel to that opening partnership before the immortal Inoka Ranaweera came tearing through to pick India’s ‘3, 4 and 5’ wickets in a single over. If things couldn’t get much worse, here was Richa Ghosh coming in and being run out by a direct-hit to the bowler off a short wide.

You will know Deepti Sharma the India cricket resistance middle order; her more understated innings, while they show up in the statistics, don’t quite get the gongs that they deserve. A low, tight defense off early dot balls, a calm head on her shoulders while constantly reading the game and just knowing when to accelerate the rate—Deepti was the calm after the storm, bringing experience and a head that worked together with captain to counterattack with. Just as Amanjot was due 5 dots in a row by Ranaweera, Deepti pounced. Chamari Athapaththu was beaten down the leg side at both the beginning and the end of the over, Deepti leaning low to sweep both those deliveries for boundaries.