2nd November 2025 will be a date that will be remembered that changed Women’s cricket forever in India. It was the final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 and the women in blue created history. It was a final between two teams that were the best in the tournament and two teams that had never won this trophy before.
Let’s look at this historic night in Navi Mumbai that changed Women’s Cricket
Indian Women’s Cricket Date With Destiny
The World Cup Final was delayed by 2 hours because of rain. There were 45,000 fans present at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. The match started at 5 PM and it was India who were batting first. Every run was cheered, every four was treated like a win. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma were batting at the top. Pratika Rawal was not playing as she was injured. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma had an incredible 104 run stand for the first wicket. They gave India a foundation. Shafali Verma was destiny’s child and she made a match winning 87 runs from 78 runs and she hit 7 fours and 2 sixes. In the middle order Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma made useful contributions. In the lower order, Richa Ghosh made a quick-fire 34 runs. India made a very competitive score of 298 runs.
South Africa had a target of 299 runs. They had a good opening stand of 51 runs and Laura Wolvaardt played another great innings in an ICC knockout match. She made 101 runs in the final and an outstanding 571 runs in the tournament. This is the most runs by a batter in a Women’s World Cup. She was not supported by the other batters. Shafali Verma could do no wrong today as she took 2 wickets along with the 87 runs. It was Deepti Sharma who had the performance of her life as she took a 5 Wicket Haul finishing with 5/39. India won the match as Harmanpreet Kaur took the winning catch and India won by 52 runs.
It was a moment which was 50 years in the making. The women’s cricket World Cup has been going on since 1973. India are the fourth different team that have won the ICC Cricket World Cup. Harmanpreet Kaur is the third Indian captain to win an ODI World Cup for India and the first woman captain. The celebrations were special as Pratika Rawal was in a wheelchair and also joined the celebrations. Former legends like Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra also had the opportunity to celebrate with the trophy. They were the pioneers for the women’s game. This is a moment which is similar to the 1983 World Cup winning moment led by Kapil Dev. India have won 3 ICC tournaments since the heartbreak in the 2023 World Cup. The BCCI has announced a prize money of 51 crores. The biggest impact will be that crores of girls will be proud and pick up a cricket bat and Indian women’s cricket will be unstoppable.
