Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025: How India finally embraced World Cup fever
Another effect of the Colombo rain and quiet group stage was that the tournament was devoid of any danger, none of the shocks or surprises that make World Cups so special in any sport.
The biggest one would be Pakistan beating England, which they probably would have done had the weather not intervened.
These games may not have changed the eventual semi-finalists, who were already in the final four as many would have predicted, but it did mean they were taken away from them and it wasn’t until the knockouts that the tournament really got going.
First, Laura Wolvaardt stunned England with a magnificent score of 169 and Marizanne Kapp took the batsmen 5-20 as South Africa dominated in Guwahati and rewrote their script after being bowled out for 69 in the opening over.
Wolvaardt’s was the first of four centuries in the semi-finals (two for her, one for Phoebe Litchfield and Jemimah Rodrigues) that oozed class, power and skill, showing how much the game has evolved and what these players can do on the biggest stage.
Rodrigues then lit up Navi Mumbai as India bowled out champions Australia in an all-time classic and chased a record 339 under the bright lights, reigniting the hopes of a nation disappointed after three defeats in the group stage.
That’s what changed the course of things. More than 24 hours after the first ball of the final, queues formed outside the stadium; stalls and vendors lined the streets, selling hats, flags and shirts with Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet’s names written on the back.
As the stars aligned, the stars emerged – Sachin Tendulkar, the leading run-scorer in Test cricket history, delivered a pre-match speech on behalf of the team before the match, pumping up the crowd as he walked off the field with the trophy in hand.
“This is India. It takes very little to mobilize emotions, good or bad, and that is exactly what happened,” Wakankar added.
“I had friends and people who were influential enough to buy tickets on their own, they called me for the last day and a half and the tickets were nowhere to be found.
“I heard that players’ families, extended families, are having a hard time getting into the land.”
For the post-match celebrations, India’s players wore different jerseys with “Champions” written on the front. Past cast members including legends Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj have joined the party and there is talk in Mumbai that the winners will walk away with the trophy, giving more people a chance to see their new heroes.
In the end, it was Harmanpreet who offered the most apt summary after years of near-misses in a star-studded career.
“This is not the end, this is just the beginning.”
