We were badly waiting for this moment, says captain Harmanpreet

Mumbai: At the end of the final, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and vice captain Smriti Mandhana shared a long, emotional hug. After many heartbreaks, the two stalwarts of Indian cricket had finally realised their dream of winning the ICC Women's World Cup as India beat South Africa by 52 runs.

They were in the middle of the Dr DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai, their favourite ground. Harmanpreet said they were recollecting how it was destiny with the last-minute shift of venues from Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium to the Navi Mumbai Stadium.

Talking about what it was like to share this moment and journey with Mandhana, Harmanpreet said: “We played a lot of world cups together and after losing we would go back home and on return talk the same thing "how we have to start from ball one". It was heartbreaking for us. Every time we were thinking when will we break through?

“The moment we came to know that our venue has changed to DY Patil (matches shifted from Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium) we all got so happy because we have always played good cricket here. We always get big crowds here who are always very supportive. When the venue was changed we all started messaging in the group that “wow, we were manifesting and this has happened, and the final is going to be played here. Now we will not leave it (the cup),” said Harmanpreet.

“As soon as we reached here, we said: “we have come to our home, we will not look back. Joh pahele ka world cup hai woh wahin chod do (leave the first half of the tournament behind), our world cup has just started.”

India had suffered three straight losses in the league stage before the start of the Mumbai leg of their matches. Starting with their crucial win against New Zealand to qualify, they won all the games played at the DY Patil Stadium, including stunning defending champions Australia in the semifinal, culminating in their win in the final on Sunday.

Talking about the final match against South Africa, the India captain said they kept it simple in batting with focus on setting a reasonable target.

“The way our team got on a winning spree in the last three games, a lot of things had changed for us, especially our self belief. We knew as a team what we can do it, so from the first ball we had self-belief.

“We knew conditions will be hard batting first because we have been unlucky at the toss, credit goes to Smriti and Shafali (Verma).

“If we thought about a big target we would come under pressure, so the aim was to keep batting and put 300 on the board. We were one run short (298 runs),” said Harmanpreet in her post match media interaction.

“We came to the field also as a unit, whenever we needed a breakthrough, we got it. Now it is easy to talk about it, but there was a lot of tension in the middle the way Laura was batting. At the end of the day, we are feeling great.”

The turning point in the game was India captain Harmanpreet Kaur's move to bring on part-timer Shafali Verma as South Africa were looking to fight back through a partnership between South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt and Sune Luus for the third wicket. Shafali, who made a career-best 87 with the bat, exceeded expectations by delivering a double strike.

In her first over, the 21st of the innings, she caught and bowled Sune Luus to end her 52-run stand with captain Laura Wolvaardt. And with the first ball of her second over, she got another big wicket as Marizanne Kapp was caught down the leg side.

Harmanpreet said she went with her gut feeling to try out Shafali.

“In domestic cricket, Shafali was bowling a lot of overs. Amol Muzumdar sir and I had spoken to her that if required she may have to bowl a couple of overs. Shafali said: “I am ready for 10 overs”. That shows how confident she was to bowl. Today in the middle when the partnership started I thought let's give an over to Shafali, that was a gut feeling. I knew it could be a little risky but at the same time I was very positive because she showed me that confidence. I didn't want to go back to the room and think, “why I didn't try that (Shafali), because they were really looking good. When I gave her that over, she took back to back wickets, those breakthroughs were the turning point for us.”

The India captain said a frank talk from coach Amol Muzumdar after their narrow four-run defeat to England was the turning point of their campaign. “A lot of things changed after the defeat against England, Sir (Amol Muzumdar) told us you can't be making the same mistake again and again, we have to cross that line, we have to come up with a really strong mindset. It helped us prepare even more for this tournament. There were one or two players who didn't like to do visualisation and meditation as much, but after that everybody came together that we are here for something and this time we have to do it.”

The 1983 men's ODI World Cup win brought a revolution in men's cricket, Harmanpreet said their win will have the same impact in the women's game. “Definitely (it will). We have been talking about it for a long time. We have been playing good cricket but along with that we have to win some big tournaments. Without that the revolution we are talking about is not possible. At the end of the day, everybody wants to see their favourite team lift the cup. We were badly waiting for this moment.”

Source: HindustanTimes
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