Credit: BCCI/X
The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2025 final between co-hosts India and South Africa began after a delay of a couple of hours due to rain at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Following that, the Indian batting lineup, who were put into bat first by South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt, got off to a fantastic start with their openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma managing the initial tough phase before taking the attack to the opposition bowlers.
Notably, the first over of the Women’s CWC final was a maiden from pacer Marizanne Kapp against Mandhana, who understood the importance of assessing the pitch conditions before focusing on scoring runs. On the other hand, her opening partner Verma, who is quite known for her aggressive intent, didn’t take much time before getting into her work with a few fours to her name to help the team reach the fifty in just 6.3 overs.
India concluded the first powerplay with 64/0 on the board as Shafali Verma was not out on 29 off 26 while Smriti Mandhana got up to an unbeaten 27 off 35, including five fours each. Mandhana ended up becoming the highest run-scorer in a single Women’s CWC campaign, going past her former teammate Mithali Raj, who had scored 409 runs in the 2017 campaign for the Indian cricket team.
And then, Mandhana and Verma became the second opening pair for India to register a 100-run partnership in the Women’s CWC 2025 before the former lost her wicket to Chloe Tryon for 45 off 58 with eight fours to her name. As of this writing, India have reached 114/1 in 20 overs with Shafali Verma (56* off 54) and Jemimah Rodrigues (3* off 8) still at the crease.
Check out the fan reaction on X to India’s fantastic start with bat in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 final:
Below are the playing XIs of India and South Africa for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 final:
India: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Radha Yadav, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani, Renuka Singh
South Africa: Laura Wolvaardt (c), Tazmin Brits, Anneke Bosch, Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp, Annerie Dercksen, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Mlaba
