Harmanpreet Kaur reveals why she pocketed the match ball after India's victory in ICC Women's World Cup 2025 final

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

India Women Cricket Team crushed South Africa Women by 52 runs in the final of ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025. After setting a target of 299, India bundled South Africa for 246 runs to grab a huge victory in the summit clash.

Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur took a sensational catch of South Africa’s Nadine de Klerk, who was the last batter, to take the team to victory, which was a memorable winning moment for every Indian fan. After taking the catch, the Indian captain slipped the ball into her pockets amid the celebrations.

The small but powerful gesture reminded many fans of former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar, who famously pocketed the match ball after India’s maiden victory in ICC Cricket World Cup 1983 final. Kaur unknowingly recreated the moment after 42 years at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai.

This was a god’s plan: Harmanpreet Kaur on pocketing the match ball after ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 final

When India Women players were felicitated by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi in New Delhi on November 5, Kaur revealed why she pocketed the ball after the catch.

“This was also god’s plan, sir. It was only all of a sudden. I didn’t know the last catch would come to me. After all these years of hard work, when it did, I just felt it should stay with me,” she said.

Meanwhile, Kaur scored 260 runs in eight games in ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 at an average of 32.50. While she could not grab the limelight with the bat, she was lauded for her smart captaincy in the final.

She gave the ball to Shafali Verma and it changed the course of the clash as the latter picked two crucial wickets. With Laura Wolvaardt’s marvellous century, South Africa Women dominated India Women in the 299-run chase from the start. However, with Deepti Sharma’s five-wicket haul and Shafali’s two wickets, the Women in Blue made a comeback with the ball and eventually outplayed South Africa Women by a huge margin.

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