India Wins First Ever Women’s World Cup: Historic 52-Run Victory Over South Africa
November 3, 2025
South Africa did well to stop India from reaching a bigger total, taking regular wickets and using the slower, spin-friendly pitch effectively after a two-hour rain delay.
Shafali showed great maturity in her innings, mixing aggression with smart strike rotation. Along with Smriti Mandhana (45), she gave India a strong start by adding 104 runs for the first wicket, putting South Africa under pressure early.
Shafali started confidently, hitting a boundary off Ayabonga Khaka (3/58) in the second over and another off Marizanne Kapp in the fifth. Mandhana also looked set for a big score, playing her signature off-side drives and sweeps, but was dismissed for 45 by Chloe Tryon (1/46) in the 18th over.
Mandhana finished the tournament with 434 runs in nine matches at an average of 54.25 — the best-ever performance by an Indian batter in World Cup history, including one century and two fifties.
Khaka, who had been expensive early on, made a strong comeback by getting Shafali out after varying her lengths cleverly. Sune Luus took the catch at mid-off. Shafali had earlier been dropped by Anneke Bosch in the 21st over and missed out on a century.
Jemimah Rodrigues, the hero of India’s semifinal win over Australia, looked set for another good innings, but a sharp low catch by South Africa’s captain Laura Wolvaardt off Khaka dismissed her in the 30th over.
With two key batters gone, India relied on Harmanpreet Kaur to steady the innings. She added 52 runs with Deepti Sharma, but when the team needed to accelerate, Harmanpreet was bowled by Nonkululeko Mlaba in the 39th over.
India lost more ground when Amanjot Kaur (12) was dismissed after a brilliant one-handed catch by Nadine de Klerk, who dived to her right to take it. This left India struggling before Deepti and Richa’s late efforts helped them reach 298/7.
