At last, 50 years on from their debut on the world stage, India\u2019s dream came true: a first World Cup triumph, in front of a deafening full house in Navi Mumbai, as they defeated South Africa by 52 runs.<\/p>\n
Laura Wolvaardt struck a magnificent century, going back-to-back after her winning effort against England in the semi-final, but while she finished the tournament with 571 runs \u2013 the most by any woman in a World Cup \u2013 the ultimate prize belonged to India.<\/p>\n
They had two history-making heroes. The first was the unlikely figure of Shafali Verma, playing in this match only because of the ankle injury sustained by Pratika Rawal in the group stage but who chimed in with a career-best 87 from 78 balls and two wickets.<\/p>\n
Then, just as this final threatened to become a nailbiter, Deepti Sharma \u2013 who had contributed 58 runs \u2013 executed the perfect yorker to bowl Annerie Dercksen, and followed it up with the key scalp of Wolvaardt as Amanjot Kaur ran round from deep midwicket to take a diving juggle\u2011catch. For Amanjot it was third time lucky with the catch: for India, third time lucky in a World Cup final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so grateful for this crowd \u2013 thank you for being there for us,\u201d India\u2019s captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, said, even as their booming cheers made it impossible for her to hear the post-match interview questions. \u201cWe lost three back-to-back games, but we knew this team had something special to turn things around.\u201d<\/p>\n
The India head coach, Amol Mazumda, said: \u201cThey\u2019ve done every Indian proud. It\u2019s a watershed moment for Indian cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n
For South Africa, the nightmare: after the T20 despair of 2023 and 2024, another World Cup slipping through their fingers. Shafali and Deepti contributed half-centuries, while Richa Ghosh struck 34 off 24 balls as India reached 298 for seven \u2013 and yet all had offered up chances.<\/p>\n
India recovered from losing three successive group-stage games to lift the trophy. Photograph: Punit Paranjpe\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Most egregious was the catch spilled at deep midwicket by Anneke Bosch, who grassed Shafali\u2019s slog\u2011sweep at deep midwicket when the India opener was on 56.<\/p>\n
For the 21-year-old Shafali, this was the culmination of a surreal week: Tuesday, approved as an injury replacement for Pratika; Thursday, dismissed after five balls in the semi\u2011final; Sunday, hitting the winning knock in a World Cup final.<\/p>\n
Then there was her bowling, which took everyone by surprise \u2013 not least the South Africans. Before Sunday, Shafali had bowled just 14 overs in 30 one-day internationals. But in Navi Mumbai, in a World Cup final, her 15th and 16th proved to be deeply significant. First, Sun\u00e9 Luus pinged back a limp return catch. Then Marizanne Kapp poked at one down the leg side and was caught behind.<\/p>\n
Harmanpreet called Shafali\u2019s spell the turning point: \u201cI just saw Shafali standing there, and the way she batted today, I knew it was her day. I thought: \u2018I have to go with my gut feeling. I\u2019m going to give her one over.\u2019 She was like: \u2018I\u2019m going to bowl 10 overs for the team.\u2019 That shows how confident she was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Play had been delayed for two hours by rain, leading South Africa to opt to bowl first in the hope of sticky, tricky batting conditions first up.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n A rollicking start from Shafali and Smriti Mandhana quickly put paid to that theory, the pair adding 104 inside 18 overs for the first wicket.<\/p>\n The fact India failed to reach 300 after that platform speaks to the quality of South Africa\u2019s bowling under pressure. Nonkululeko Mlaba conceded 47 in her 10 overs of left\u2011arm spin and bowled Harmanpreet after the India captain shaped to cut and missed. Ayabonga Khaka finished with three for 58, having India\u2019s semi\u2011final hero Jemimah Rodrigues caught at extra-cover for 24 and returning at the death to have Richa caught.<\/p>\n Shafali Verma hit 87 off 78 balls and then took two South Africa wickets in the final. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas\/Reuters<\/p>\n South Africa had beaten the odds once in a run chase in this tournament, against this same opposition, after a thundering effort from Nadine de Klerk at the death.<\/p>\n Now, Dercksen smashed Radha Yadav for the biggest six of the tournament, 84 metres, while De Klerk threatened to punish India for their poor use of the decision review system, given not out lbw to Deepti \u2013 a decision India were unable to send upstairs after burning through both their reviews earlier in the innings.<\/p>\n But it was Deepti who had the last word, adding a fifth wicket to her tally: De Klerk sent a catch flying up to cover, Harmanpreet plucked it out of the air, and the pair converged with joy to begin a celebration which will no doubt last long into the night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At last, 50 years on from their debut on the world stage, India\u2019s dream came true: a first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-258472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}