On November 2, 2025, at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai, India won their first Women’s Cricket World Cup. The Women in Blue defeated South Africa by 52 runs in a hard-fought final, ending decades of heartbreak and ushering in a new era in Indian cricket. The victory followed a record semi-final chase against Australia, led by Jemimah Rodrigues’ unbeaten 127. Harmanpreet Kaur sealed the win with the final catch, fulfilling a promise made after India’s 2017 loss. This win signals a changed future for women’s sport in India.
On Sunday, November 2, 2025, the India Women’s National Cricket Team crafted a story eight years in the making. It began on a summer night in 2017, at Lord’s—widely referred to as the home of cricket—when the team fell nine heartbreaking runs short of glory at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in England. After the match, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana promised Jhulan Goswami—the woman who transformed women’s cricket in India—that they would win the Cup for her. On Sunday night, they fulfilled that promise. As India defeated South Africa by 52 runs, Kaur took the final catch to decide the match. It was the culmination of eight years of heartbreaks, hard work, and near defeats.
As hosts, India were favourites coming into the tournament but their path to the final was far from smooth. Team India faced a difficult time when they lost three consecutive matches against South Africa, Australia, and England midway through the tournament. The defeat to England was especially bitter as the Women in Blue failed to chase a target of 289 despite being well placed at 234 for 3 wickets. It brought back memories of the 2017 final.
But the girls bounced back. Following a DLS win against New Zealand and an abandoned match against Bangladesh to conclude the league stage, the team faced a formidable Australia in the second semi-final in Navi Mumbai. That match proved to be a turning point. Chasing down a seemingly insurmountable target of 339, India scripted a spectacle for the ages with the highest successful run chase in Women’s ODI history to reach the final. Jemimah Rodrigues—out of the playing XI only two weeks earlier and batting at number 3 instead of her usual spot at 5—produced an unbeaten 127 to power India to a five-wicket win against the defending champions with five balls to spare.
If the semi-final was the greatest run chase in the history of Women’s Cricket, the final on Sunday night was surely one of the greatest matches in the history of Cricket. Sent out to bat first after losing the toss, India put up a target of 299 and bowled out the Proteas for 246 to clinch their first-ever ICC Women’s World Cup title. Shafali Verma delivered a spectacular 87-run knock off 78 balls, and Deepti Sharma engineered an awe-inspiring 5-wicket haul conceding only 39 runs. For Women’s Cricket in India, it was more akin to the Kapil Dev-led men’s team’s 1983 win than the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led squad’s 2011 victory.
The Women’s World Cup win comes three years after BCCI’s decision to introduce equal pay for both men’s and women’s national cricket teams. The unanimous resolution, passed at the Board’s 15th Apex Council meeting in October 2022, sent ripples in the world of sports. For time first time, women cricketers received the same match fee as their male counterparts.
While systemic inequalities persist, the introduction of equal pay ushered in an era of transformation in Women’s Cricket in India. With better support staff, training facilities, and financial security for women cricketers, it proved that given access to the same opportunities and resources, Indian women can not only compete but also become world champions.
Watch the highlights of the 2025 ICC Women’s World Cup Final here.
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