India’s Win in 12 Frames: The Women Who Made Cricket History

It was at the stroke of midnight when a ball from Nadine de Klerk’s bat came flying towards Harmanpreet Kaur — and she caught it! The Indian women defeated South Africa by 52 runs at the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

In seconds, the women in blue — drenched in sweat and soil — rushed towards Kaur to celebrate India’s historic ICC Women’s World Cup victory.

Moments later, the same hands that caught the flying ball lifted the trophy.

The win was stitched together by women who came from villages and tier-2 towns — who dreamt big in small places and practised on uneven pitches. They never gave up, even when cricket once failed to recognise them.

Stars of the evening

Shafali Verma – the fearless teenager from Rohtak who once cut her hair short just to sneak into boys’ nets, batted as if the world owed her one final explosion.

Deepti Sharma – the meticulous all-rounder from Agra, who travelled 12 km every day to train and now has a street named after her, anchored the chaos with discipline.

Amanjot Kaur – the unassuming 25-year-old who wasn’t allowed to play with the boys in her neighbourhood, and whose father endured taunts, lit up the field with a sharp run-out and the match-winning catch of Wolvaardt.

Richa Ghosh – still barely out of her teens, from the cricket-bare streets of Siliguri, smiled through every crisis, turning pressure into theatre; her effortless big-hitting powered India to a defendable total in Sunday’s final.

Harmanpreet Kaur – her journey from Punjab’s backyard games to lifting the World Cup trophy mirrors the story of Indian women’s cricket itself: improvisation, endurance, and the relentless fight to be taken seriously.

Jemimah Rodrigues – polished yet quietly stubborn, she embodies what a professional Indian woman cricketer looks like today: confident, self-contained, and unafraid of the camera or the scoreboard.

Little did anyone know that the DY Patil Stadium — and the 35,000-plus fans who had filled every seat — were about to witness history. That night, Harmanpreet & Co. didn’t just win a match; they changed the story of Indian cricket forever.

Source: The Indian Express