As India lifted their maiden Ladies’s World Cup crown with a 52-run win over South Africa, it was Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma who stood out because the defining figures of the event. Deepti was named Participant of the Event for her all-round consistency and composure all through the marketing campaign.Within the closing, she scored an important 58 and picked up a match-winning five-wicket haul, sealing India’s long-awaited world title. She additionally completed because the event’s highest wicket-taker with 22 scalps in 9 innings and have become the one participant in World Cup knockouts, be it males’s or girls’s, to attain a fifty and take a five-for. Shafali Verma, whose aggressive 87 off 78 balls laid the muse for India’s whole of 298/7, was named Participant of the Match.

Her innings, full of fresh hitting and management, broke a number of age and efficiency information and symbolised her redemption after being introduced in for the semi-final after an damage to Pratika Rawal. For South Africa, captain Laura Wolvaardt ended because the event’s prime run-scorer with 571 runs in 9 innings. Her century within the closing, a fluent 101 off 98 balls, etched her identify in historical past because the participant with essentially the most runs in a single version of the Ladies’s World Cup. After Wolvaardt gained the toss and opted to area, India’s openers Smriti Mandhana (45) and Shafali added 104 runs for the primary wicket — solely the second century partnership ever in a Ladies’s World Cup closing. Deepti and Richa Ghosh (34 off 24) supplied the ending touches to take India near 300. In reply, Wolvaardt’s effort stored South Africa within the contest earlier than India’s spinners, led by Deepti, took management. Her 5/39 and Shafali’s two wickets bundled the Proteas out for 246.

It was a becoming finish to a marketing campaign marked by composure and perception. From chasing down 339 in opposition to Australia within the semifinal to holding their nerve within the closing, Harmanpreet Kaur’s facet delivered when it mattered most.