Women’s ODI World Cup | Destiny’s child — Shafali’s final heroics and fairytale finish

For a while, the Women’s ODI World Cup felt like the script of a film. A struggling hero is sent back to the drawing board to fix deficiencies, and suddenly, a call comes to deliver for the nation at the hardest stage of all — a World Cup.

This is Shafali Verma’s reality. She led India to its first silverware for the women when she lifted the under-19 T20 World Cup trophy in South Africa in 2023. On Sunday, she was front and centre of a 52-run win over the Proteas in the summit clash, with a 78-ball 87 and two crucial wickets.

“God has sent me here to do something nice, just happy I could make the team win,” Shafali said after the win.

At 21 years and 278 days, Shafali is the youngest to win the Player-of-the-Match award at a Women’s World Cup final.

Shafali, who was out of the Indian ODI set-up for a year, was playing the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy. A freak fracture to Pratika Rawal opened the door for Shafali’s return.

More than her half-century, her first in ODIs since 2022, it was her instant impact with the ball that left the Proteas stunned.

“When Shafali joined the team, we were missing the overs from Pratika. Shafali has been bowling a lot in domestic cricket. When Amol (Muzumdar) sir spoke to her, she said: ‘I’m ready for 10 overs,’” skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said after the game.

“I didn’t want to go back to the room, thinking why I didn’t try. Those back-to-back wickets [of Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp] were a turning point for us,” she added.

Coach Muzumdar has always maintained that Shafali was never out of the ODI scheme of things. “If you look at it positively, a player as good as Shafali not finding a place in the 15 is such a good sign,” he said.

“It’s all destiny. When Pratika got injured, we were all gutted. This team prays for each other, stays together through ups and downs. First Yastika Bhatia and then Pratika. When Shafali came, we didn’t want her to feel that she came in under an injury cloud. Everybody was so positive. Everyone was thinking that our end goal was this trophy, and we worked day and night. This is the result,” Harmanpreet added.