Indian women’s cricket finally scaled its Everest on Sunday, as years of toil and heartbreak culminated in glory with a 52-run win over South Africa in Navi Mumbai, sealing the nation’s maiden ICC Women’s ODI World Cup through stellar all-round efforts from Shafali Verma and Deepti Sharma.
India’s breakthrough in the 13th edition of the global showpiece made them only the fourth team to win the trophy, joining Australia (7), England (4) and New Zealand (1) in the pantheon of champions.
With the victory, Harmanpreet’s team finally buried the ghosts of past heartbreaks — the 2005 and 2017 finals — and delivered India’s much-awaited World title, a watershed moment for the game in the country.
