India 298 for 7 (Shafali 87, Deepti 58, Mandhana 45, Ghosh 34, Khaka 3-58) won South Africa 246 (Wolffhardt 101, Derksen 35, Debt 5-39, Shafali 2-36) with 52 points.
This has been India’s World Cup all along. As hosts. As an emerging global force in women’s cricket. As the team that has pushed the sport’s dominant force harder than any other, defeating them twice in the semi-finals. Like a team that has been around for a very long time.
On Sunday, India qualified for the World Cup finals by winning it. Shafali Verma capped an exceptional week with an exceptional display in the final: 87 off 78 balls to make up a total of 298 for 7, and two unexpected wickets from the trademark cheek at a crucial juncture in a chase that more than once threatened to turn into a nail-biter. Deepti Sharma, the world-class bowler who took her batting to a new level this year, backed up her half-century of runs with the ball with a five-wicket haul that combined old-school and new-age defensive skills. India won by 52 runs, and that margin belied just how tense this final was.
This was a meeting between two teams suffering from heartbreak, and one of them had to lose. This was South Africa’s fate, and it was harsh for its captain, Laura Wolfhardt, the tournament’s highest-scoring scorer, who followed a career-defining semi-final run with a performance no less good. This was anyone’s game for as long as it was, given South Africa’s sheer depth, until they finished seventh with 101 off 98 balls, and Deepti missed high on the Navi Mumbai night.
Nadine de Klerk, the match-winner in the league stage encounter between these two teams, kept faint hopes alive with her knock, but getting 78 points with only numbers 10 and 11 was too difficult even for her.
Footage from the Women’s World Cup final between India and South Africa in Navi Mumbai
South Africa won what looked like an important toss, but the dew that Navi Mumbai always brings to chases did not quite materialise, perhaps because rain that delayed the match by two hours brought temperatures down before nightfall.
This equalized the conditions for both teams, and in the end, India had personnel better suited to the pitch on which the ball stops and is caught: more flamboyant batsmen who are adept at risk-free manipulation of spin, and spinners who pose a greater attacking threat. As long as the dew does not complicate the task of Dipti and Shri Charani, South Africa will find it difficult to chase down 299 on this pitch.
The chase put India’s innings into perspective. Their total was the second-highest ever achieved in a Women’s World Cup final, but given the events of Thursday’s semi-final at the same ground, and given South Africa’s depth, it seemed less intimidating.
Recent events were fresh in mind. India were 200 for 3 after 35 overs. They have scored just 98 in their last 15 matches, and just 69 in their last 10.
But the key passages may have come earlier.
When the skies cleared and the match began, Shafali and Smriti Mandhana set out to start the match as ominously as Australia’s match on Thursday; 58 for no loss in eight overs. Ayabonga Khaka struggled to control the excessive swing she found at times, and Marizanne Kapp didn’t find much at all with her new ball. They both made mistakes repeatedly.
Footage from the Women’s World Cup final between India and South Africa in Navi Mumbai
Shafali, who came out to the seamers whenever she could, drove and freed her way to five balls in her first 19 balls, and Mandhana, less overtly aggressive, launched her two favorite shots, the back cut and the cover drive, against Khaka in her 14th over in the sixth over.
But South Africa turned things back thanks to De Klerk’s straighter lines and left-arm off-spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba’s changes of pace, as India scored just 13 runs in the five overs from the ninth over to the 13th over.
The boundaries started flowing again after that, though, as Shafali fired de Klerk down the ground for the first six of the innings in the 15th over, but just when India looked to be moving out of South Africa’s reach, Mandhana was out-scoring the keeper, ending a 104-run opening stand.
This drag continued throughout the innings, in conditions where neither pitchers nor hitters could reach the top. Down and out after adding 16 runs to her previous best ODI score of 71*, a tired and cramped Shafali hunkers down as she looks to bat straight and big. Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet and Amanjot Kaur all started but were unable to convert, and two of them fell to balls that appeared to stop on the pitch.
India’s lack of a big finish was largely due to how well South Africa exploited that tendency on the field, with Khaka compensating for her expensive spell on the ball (3-0-29-0) by conceding just 29 runs in her last seven overs while picking up the key wickets of Shafali, Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh.
Highlights of the final between India and South Africa in Navi Mumbai
Ghosh entered at 245 for 5 in the 44th over and fired her second ball with an effortless six over the covers. She remained the only Indian player to defy the conditions and hit the old ball cleanly across the line, taking advantage of South Africa’s shift in strategy from stump-to-stump cuts to yorkers that came with a smaller margin of error.
However, Khaka’s dismissal of Ghosh in the 49th round seemed to have upped the ante once again. Meanwhile, Khaka continued to stifle Ghosh with precise shots that followed her attempts to clear space, before the flick of the final ball ended up in the hands of deep backward square leg.
De Klerk followed up with a final over in which Deepti and new batsman Radha Yadav could only get singles, and India ended up with a lead of 300.
Deepti was a busy presence over the last 20 overs of the innings, sweeping the action aggressively when she could, and sustaining the strike when she couldn’t. However, it did not quite find the next cog to lift India to the 320 total they had looked set to achieve for a long time.
However, the magnitude of the 298 India earthquake began to become apparent since they started defending it. The seamers did not make errors of line and length as South Africa did with the new ball, with Renuka Singh in particular causing problems with her booming shot. She unsuccessfully reviewed a no-out appeal against Tazmin Brits early on, then nearly spooned a single over a cleverly placed short midwicket.
Footage from the Women’s World Cup final between India and South Africa in Navi Mumbai
But it took a remarkable amount of fielding for India to make their breakthrough, as Amanjot swooped down the wrong side of mid-wicket and lobbed the stumps at the fielder’s end to find the Brits short as they attempted a quick single.
Two overs later, South Africa were two runs down, as Anneke Bosch finished a miserable six off, misreading Charani’s length and being caught in the lead while playing back to a full-length ball.
Despite this, Wolfhardt was already on 35 off 30, and was already looking ominous, having broken free from early pressure with a series of leg-side hits and a clean straight six from Dipte. And when she needed a partner to stick with her, she found one in Sune Luus, whose trademark blend of square and precise sweeps soon began putting India under pressure once again.
But once the third wicket stand crossed the half-century mark, India found their golden arm. Shafali, who had taken just one wicket with her part-time offspinner in her previous 30 ODIs, walked to the crease and edged Luus with her second ball, delivering something like a slow leg-cutter or a carom ball without the flick of a finger. Expecting to turn in one direction and find it in another, Luus closed her bat face and re-caught. She played on again, hitting again with the first ball, this time turning a big sweep to choke Kapp by the leg side.
Footage from the Women’s World Cup final between India and South Africa in Navi Mumbai
With rain pouring down on parts of Mumbai at that moment, South Africa were ahead on the DLS score before Lewis was sent off. At 123 for 4 in the 23rd over, they were far behind.
And they fell further when Sinalo Jafta, who were ahead of more established and established names despite an ODI average in the mid-teens, started facing the spinners. By the time she got the better of Deepti in the middle, she had scored 16 off 29 and 25 off 44 for Wolfhardt.
But even with 151 required off 123 balls, this match did not happen. Aneri Derksen silenced the crowded field with back-to-back sixes from Radha, the first of a high full toss with no ball to rise. Wolfhardt ended Shafali’s spell – perhaps ambitiously extended to the seventh over – with a pair of four-holes through the covers and down the ground.
With 11 matches remaining, South Africa needed 92.
But they still have the highest number of wicket-takers in the tournament, and the best bowler in the final, to contend with. Dipti, in the second over of his new spell, produced a quick yorker out of nowhere that Dirksen couldn’t put the bat to. Then, at her next session, she slowed down one pace and invited Wolfhardt to move forward. Diep produced the michette, but it still had to be taken, and Amanjot, coming in from deep midwicket, actually made it in the third – or was it the fourth? – Trying to fall to the ground but somehow holding on to it.
Three balls later, Deepti’s white-ball intelligence put India another massive step closer, a quicker, crossing ball that beat Tryon to hit her front pad; It was introduced on the field, upheld by DRS at the referee’s call.
There was still a lot of work to be done, still nerves to get through, but the World Cup, which had remained out of reach for so many years, was beginning to loom in India’s view.
