After profitable India’s first Girls’s World Cup, Harmanpreet Kaur saved the match ball. This was a particular second, similar to when Sunil Gavaskar did the identical factor after the lads’s staff received in 1983.

In an evening of excessive drama and history-making for Indian cricket, the India girls’s nationwide cricket staff lastly broke their lengthy await a world title. In entrance of a roaring full home crowd on the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, captain Harmanpreet Kaur delivered not solely an outstanding efficiency on the sphere, however a small gesture that introduced the previous and current collectively in vivid color.

The 2025 Girls’s Cricket World Cup closing towards South Africa was an enormous sport. Each single second actually mattered. India, eager to win the trophy for a few years, seemed calm and certain as they made a superb rating. Key contributions from bat, ball and discipline put them able of management. Then, when South Africa threatened with a fiery middle-phase push, India’s bowlers dug deep, and the catch that sealed the win got here within the fingers of Harmanpreet at a pivotal second.

As the ultimate wicket tumbled, the stadium erupted. But it surely was what occurred subsequent that captured hearts. Harmanpreet held aloft the match ball – not in triumphant show, however quietly, intentionally – then slipped it into her pocket. It echoed the long-lasting second when Sunil Gavaskar did the identical after India’s 1983 World Cup victory at Lord’s, linking a era of Indian cricketing goals with this new achievement. “Did you see what Harmanpreet did when she took that catch? She put the ball in her pocket, similar to any person did in ’83,” Gavaskar mirrored hours later.

That gesture – small, private, profound – symbolised the load of legacy and the brand new chapter now unfolding. For years, the Indian girls’s facet chased milestones. Tonight they claimed one, and in doing in order that they handed the cricketing nation a second of pure pleasure.

Add India.com as a Most popular Supply

Harmanpreet’s management all through the event had already been noteworthy: daring captaincy, good use of assets, and a relaxed head below strain. Within the closing, she backed a younger bowler with much less expertise, trusting perception over stats – a name that proved decisive as the sport shifted in India’s favour. The batters had arrange the muse, and the bowlers executed when wanted; however the captain’s poise turned a superb facet right into a champion facet.

After the match she stated, “That is the beginning. We needed to interrupt that barrier. And now this second has come. So many large events are coming, and we wish to maintain enhancing. This isn’t the tip, only the start.” The smile on her face, the ball in her pocket – each spoke of ambition, achievement and the promise of extra.

Tonight, the India girls’s staff made historical past. They gave themselves – and a nation – a narrative to recollect. And in that pocketed ball you’ll discover greater than leather-based and seams: you’ll discover hope, grit and a brand new period dawned.