India have ended their long-awaited wait for an ICC women’s title. India are now world champions as they won their first world title by defeating South Africa in the final of the 2025 ODI World Cup. Thanks to strong all-round contributions from Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma, the Blue Women team won the World Cup by defeating the Proteas by 52 runs in the final. After many disappointing moments in the past, India have finally crossed the finish line to win their first ICC Women’s Trophy. They had faced disappointment in the past with defeats in the 2017 World Cup final, 2020 T20 World Cup final and semi-finals of the 2018 and 2023 T20 World Cups, but now it is a moment of joy for them after winning the world title.
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BCCI congratulated Team India on winning the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup for the first time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Indian cricket team on winning the ICC Women’s World Cup final against South Africa. Tweeted, “A spectacular win for the Indian team in the final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025. Their performance in the final was full of amazing skill and confidence. The team showed exceptional teamwork and tenacity throughout the tournament. Congratulations to our players. This historic win will inspire future champion teams to attend the Games.”
India posted a strong score of 298/6 after being invited to bat first by South Africa. A brilliant innings from Shafali Verma, who scored 87 off 78 balls, laid the foundation for India’s strong score, while vital contributions from Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh took the team to 298/7 in the Women’s World Cup final against South Africa at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday. Although India narrowly missed the 300-run mark, it was still the second-highest total recorded in a Women’s World Cup final, behind Australia’s 356/5 against England in the 2022 edition. South Africa’s fielding effort was below average, as they dropped a few catches which allowed India to build partnerships throughout the innings.
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South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt won the toss and decided to field first, after which India’s opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma gave a great start to the hosts. Both mixed aggression with caution, taking advantage of loose balls and scoring runs consistently. The partnership reached fifty runs in just 6.3 overs and by the end of the first ten overs, India’s score was 64/0.
The openers dominated the match and added 104 runs, but Mandhana was out after scoring 45 runs off the bowling of Chloe Tryon. This partnership of Mandhana-Verma became the second century opening partnership in the Women’s World Cup final. Earlier, Rachael Haynes and Alyssa Healy had made a partnership of 160 runs for Australia against England in the 2022 final. The consistency of India’s openers has been remarkable throughout the tournament, with a total of 671 runs (next best 390 runs), an average of 83.87 (next best 65 runs), a run rate of 6.02 (third best) and three century partnerships (next best two).