NAVI MUMBAI: "Bas karo yaar (Let’s finish, guys),” laughed the Indian captain Harmapreet Kaur, almost as a request to the reporters in front of her, looking at the team media manager. She is sitting in the press conference room of the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai with a trophy she has watched and longed for years by her side — the World Cup.
A little over thirteen minutes had gone into the post-match press conference after the Women’s Cricket World Cup final — which India beat South Africa to win their first ICC title — and Harmanpreet now wanted to be back in the middle of the ground or the dressing room surrounded by her teammates and family, celebrating. Understandably so. This is a moment she had waited her entire career for.
Ever since she made her India debut in 2009, Harmanpreet had represented India in four ODI and nine T20 World Cups before the 2025 edition. Twice India made it to the finals — 2017 with Harmanpreet as a key player and 2020 with the Punjab cricketer as the captain — but ended up as runners-up. So close yet so far. Year after year, Harmanpreet and her team suffered multiple heartbreaks, but those agonising defeats only made them more resolute and hungry.
Coming into Sunday's summit clash against South Africa, she knew that the wait had to end at some point. And it had to be in front of a home crowd at the DY Patil Stadium — a venue that had become the unofficial home of the women's team — on what was perhaps her last chance to win the World Cup. After two hours of rain delay and seven hours of high-pressure cricket, that dream had become reality.
With the trophy in front of her and eyes soaked in tears, she didn't hesitate to talk about the past heartaches shared with her deputy, Smriti Mandhana. “Every time we lost, we went home heartbroken and stayed quiet for a few days. When we returned, we always said — we have to start again from ball one. It was heartbreaking because we played so many World Cups — reaching finals, semifinals, and sometimes not even that far. We were always thinking, 'When will we break this?" Kaur, who was visibly looking numb after the historic win, told reporters while reflecting on the past struggles.
And when that moment finally came, no words had to be said. It was all smiles and tears of joy and an embrace of solace. "We have been talking about this for many years — we’ve been playing good cricket, but we had to win one big tournament. Without that, we couldn’t talk about change. At the end of the day, fans and the audience want to see their favourite team win. It’s not that we weren’t playing good cricket, but we were waiting badly for this moment, and today we got a chance to live it. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m so happy and so proud of this team,” Kaur said, before adding, “I think it’s all destiny — I really believe in that. And we didn’t want Pratika (Rawal) to face such a thing (injury). But when Shafali came, we didn’t want her to feel that she came in under an injury cloud. Even Pratika was so positive. I think everyone took everything positively. They didn’t 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.”
Harmanpreet and her band of sisters made the result happen through their sheer belief in themselves and destiny. The skipper said as much after the win. “Chahe kuch bhi hojaye, jeetenge toh ham hi (No matter what happens, we are going to end up winners)” she kept repeating to herself on the field. It was her way of ensuring that there were no nerves, and the eternal belief remained. The same belief that Harmanpreet and coach Amol Muzumdar saw in Shafali Verma, who, when asked if she would bowl a few overs, said, ‘I’ll bowl ten.’ It is a belief that grew from the moment they knew they were going to play at the DY Patil Stadium, especially in the final.
As seen in one of the BCCI.tv videos, Harmanpreet pointed at one of the light shows during the mid-innings and said, ‘There will be Champion written here (soon)’. To make that happen, they gave everything on the field. Sunday was easily one of their best fielding days, with everyone throwing themselves around, not wanting to go back, thinking I didn’t dive sooner. “In these matches, fielding helps you win. Bowling and batting are not necessarily in control, but fielding, you can put the extra effort,” Radha Yadav said with a smile. Ask Amanjot Kaur, who first effected a direct hit to run out Tazmin Brits before taking a fumbling catch of Laura Wolvaardt, she laughs: ”My god, that was the most difficult catch of my life. I have never fumbled, either I drop or catch. For the first time it happened, somehow I held on.”
If that catch sealed the contest, 39555 fans brought down the roof when Harmanpreet took the final catch running backwards. Ask any player or support staff what happened in the next five minutes, and they will say it was all a blur. The Indian flags were on every player’s shoulder as Harmanpreet held on to the ball she caught. She also held on to Smriti Mandhana, someone she has shared one too many World Cup heartbreaks with.
But once the eluded trophy was in their possession, the Women in Blue deservedly celebrated all night. About two and a half hours after India became World Champions, the entire Indian team walked out onto the middle of the pitch. They got around in a huddle and sang what Jemimah Rodrigues would later reveal as the team song, which they wanted to make public only after winning the World Cup.
At around 3 AM on Monday, as the DY Patil Stadium floodlights slowly went off one by one, the players, along with their family members, made their way to the team hotel right beside the venue, with volunteers standing on either side and applauding them. After staying away for eight hours, the drizzle had also returned, and at that moment a player emerged from the dressing room. With a hoodie over her head, a backpack and sunglasses on, Harmanpreet walked out with Prem Dhillon's Punjabi song blasting in her Bluetooth speaker.
From the dressing room till the time she entered the team hotel, the Indian captain danced and vibed to the Punjabi song alongside Harleen Deol. She was not numb any more. This was Harmanpreet Kaur from Moga, a small village in the hinterlands of Punjab, in her element, knowing what she had achieved that night; that the 36-year-old is now a World Cup-winning captain of the Indian cricket team. She also knew the party had just begun. It continued through the night at the team hotel and all over the country — India, the World Champions.
