Salam, Team India, for giving us so much happiness. No crazy TV anchors embarrassing themselves and abusing our intellect before the match. No swearing on the ground, it was all heart. Sheer determination and hard work. Cricket seemed like a Gentle People’s game again.

Our team had a slight advantage over the other teams; I am not referring to the home ground and the home crowd. Other teams mostly had only one God to support them; we had Gods of all hues and colours to turn to. If one of them was not on our side because the other team prayed more, the others might have taken us through. Cricket is a team game, so Gods cannot select a single player; they have no choice but to support all the players, irrespective of their individual beliefs.

Deepti, Harmanpreet, Smriti, Jemimah, Richa, Shefali, Amanjot, Radha, Sneh, Kranti, Renuka, Shree Charani, Pratika, Harleen, Uma, Arundhati, I cannot see any caste, religion, or state in these names. A “Chak de India” moment. A group of girls from diverse backgrounds, who played for the love of their country and the game of cricket. A jam-packed cricket stadium, cheering and crores of people watching Women’s Cricket on TV.

Fifty years after the Indian women’s team played their first international match, the Indian women’s team lifted the Cricket World Cup 2025. The Women’s Cricket Federation of India (WCFI), the first formal body dedicated to women’s cricket in India, was formed in 1971. India had a woman as a Prime Minister then. Shantha Rangaswami, Diana Eduljee, Mitali Raj, Jhullan Goswami, and many more pioneers must be given due credit for carrying the baton forward. Salute to all the women in blue. Harmanpreet Kaur’s team members have done for an entire generation of girls what Kapil Dev and his team did for Indian cricket in 1983. They have made themselves a household name and reshaped the aspirations of thousands of girls across India.

A capacity crowd was chanting and praying at the D.Y. Patil Stadium. There were crores more praying at their homes. Who was praying to whom is besides the point. Whose God was the strongest is irrelevant; the Indian women’s team made history as it beat South Africa by 52 runs in the final and clinched its maiden ICC crown.

Photos and text by Prerna Jain.