"Smriti and I were sitting and talking.."- Harmanpreet Kaur reveals why she handed ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 trophy to Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami

Harmanpreet Kaur-led India Women won ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.

Indian Women Cricket Team scripted history by defeating South Africa Women Cricket Team in the final to win ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side crushed the Proteas side by 52 runs in the summit clash, which took place on November 2 at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai.

Kaur became the highlight of the winning moment as she grabbed a brilliant catch of Nadine de Klerk at covers off Deepti Sharma, which helped India to bundle out South Africa and win the encounter. Since that moment, celebrations began inside the stadium with fans cheering for India, who won their first-ever ICC trophy.

India Women soon lifted the silverware but they did not forget to pay tribute to their senior players. In a heart-warming gesture, Kaur handed the trophy to former players Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, and Anjum Chopra, who were the main reason behind women’s cricket becoming popular.

Notably, Mithali and Jhulan were part of India Women team in ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, where they failed to reach the semi-finals. The duo were also part of the team that lost the finals in the 2005 and 2017 editions.

To share this moment with them was something really special to us: Harmanpreet Kaur

Speaking on ICC review, Kaur revealed that India Women could not win the trophy in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, which was the last edition for Mithali and Jhulan. Hence, they had decided that they would pay tribute to them when they win in future.

“The last time, back in 2022, when we returned after the World Cup, all of us were really sad. We knew that it was the last World Cup for Jhulan di and Mithali di. Smriti and I were sitting and talking, we were sad that we couldn’t deliver it for them,” she said.

“But we had decided that whenever we do it in the future, we will make sure that they would be in the stadium. We really wanted to capture that moment with them. Not only them, Diana (Edulji) ma’am was continuously messaging. Shubhangi (Kulkarni) ma’am, Sudha (Shah) ma’am, who was our coach when I made my debut,” she added.

“Everybody was there. To share this moment with them was something really special to us. And whenever we were dreaming and visualising, they were actually with us. We didn’t think of this moment without them,” Kaur concluded.

Mithali, Jhulan, and Anjum were part of the commentary panel during ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 final. After India Women’s victory, they joined the celebrations with the players.

Speaking about the summit clash, India Women defended their first innings total of 298/7, bowling out South Africa Women for 246 runs. Deepti Sharma played a crucial role with her half-century and five-wicket haul. However, Shafali Verma, who hit 87 runs and picked two crucial wickets, was awarded Player of the Match.

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