Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 3 : Following her side's ICC Women's World Cup win, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur revealed the feeling of sharing the trophy with legendary ex-teammates like Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj and what her message was to the team when South Africa was slowly making a comeback with a partnership between Laura Wolvaardt and Annerie Dercksen in full effect during the chase of 299 runs.
Harmanpreet finally had her moment, capturing the maiden ICC Women's World Cup for India by beating South Africa by 52 runs at Navi Mumbai in the finals. After the match, the team was seen sharing and handing the trophy to Mithali and Jhulan, who had worked hard to bring the Indian women's cricket to the heights it just reached with the title win.
Speaking during the pre-match press conference, Kaur revealed what it was like sharing the gold with two of India's biggest stalwarts.
"Jhulan Di was my biggest support. When I joined the team, she was leading it. She always supported me in my early days when I was very raw and didn't know much about cricket. I used to play with boys, and the school principal picked me up, and within a year, I started representing the country. In the initial days, Anjum (Chopra) provided me with a lot of support. I always remember how she used to take me along with her team. I learnt a lot from her and passed it on to my team. Both of them have been a great support for me. I am very grateful that I got to share a special moment with them. It was a very emotional moment. I think we all were waiting for this. Finally, we were able to touch this trophy," she said.
Harmanpreet also revealed that when South Africa was making a comeback in the chase, she urged the team to "keep faith" and seize the opportunities that came their way in a format as long as an ODI, where the scope for a comeback is high.
"I was just telling them keep faith. We have worked really hard for this. Opportunities will arise, and we must seize them. ODI cricket is long there are many phases you have to tick off again and again. No doubt, they played very good cricket, but we were talking about this repeatedly. I kept giving one message to all players keep faith, opportunities will come. We knew our spinners have always been our biggest strength. As soon as Deepti and Charni came, we would start getting wickets. The message was clear: just be positive," she added.
On Shafali Varma's entry into the team and her delivering a 'Player of the Match' worthy performance in the final, Harmanpreet said that it was "all destiny", something she believes in. She also said that Shafali was not made to feel like a replacement player who had come because of an injury.
"When she (Pratika Rawal) got injured, everybody was crying. Even before that, when Yastika got injured during our training camp, everybody was crying because this team is very special. They pray for each other. They stay together in ups and downs. First, Yastika (Bhatia) leaving the team was heartbreaking for us. Then, when we were just starting to do well, Pratika got injured. But when Shafali came, we did not want her to feel that she came in under an injury cloud. Even Pratika was so positive. I think everyone took everything positively. They did not think, "Why is this happening to us?" Before the tournament started, we had an injury; in the middle of the tournament, we had a big injury. Yet, everybody was so positive. Everyone was thinking that our end goal was this trophy. And for the trophy, we had to keep working hard day and night. And this is the result," she concluded.
Coming to the match, South Africa won the toss and opted to bowl first. A century partnership between Smriti Mandhana (45 in 58 balls, with eight fours) and Shafali Verma kick-started things for India, followed by another 62-run stand between Shafali (87 in 78 balls, with seven fours and two sixes) and Jemimah Rodrigues (24 in 37 balls, with a four). India was at a fine platform of 166/2.
A 52-run stand between skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (20 in 29 balls, with two fours) and Deepti Sharma took India beyond the 200-run mark. A final flourish by Deepti (58 in 58 balls, with three fours and a six) and Richa Ghosh (34 in 24 balls, with three fours and two sixes) helped India reach 298/7 in their 50 overs.
Ayabonga Khaka (3/58) was the leading wicket-taker for SA.
During the run-chase, a fifty-run stand started things for SA, with Tazmin Brits (23 in 35 balls, with two fours and a six) being the first victim. Eventually, despite skipper Laura Wolvaardt's dominance, the golden arms of Shafali Verma (2/36) and Shree Charani reduced SA to 148/5.
Wolvaardt had a 61-run stand for the sixth-wicket with Annerie Dercksen (37 in 35 balls, with a four and two sixes), which slowly started to rebuild pressure on India. Wolvaardt (101 in 98 balls, with 11 fours and a six) continued her red-hot form, bringing up her century after having registered 169 against England in semifinal just a few days back. However, a game-changing spell from Deepti removed both set batters and had Proteas struggling at 221/8. She became the first Indian woman with a WC final four-fer. Deepti (5/39) eventually managed to convert it into a fiver, as India made history to win their maiden WC title by bundling out SA for 246 runs.
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