The Indian women’s cricket team created history by winning the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 title for the first time. India defeated South Africa by 52 runs in the final played at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Team India performed brilliantly under the captaincy of captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma made the country proud by making important contributions.

In the celebratory atmosphere, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also met the entire team and congratulated them for the victory. At the same time, now the statement of former captain Shantha Rangaswami has sparked debate on social media. He said that Harmanpreet should now leave the captaincy and concentrate on her batting and fielding.

,The same statements come every time”, Anjum Chopra

While talking to NDTV, former Indian captain Anjum Chopra expressed his displeasure over this statement. He said, “After every World Cup, some such statement comes. Take the last four-five tournaments, when the team loses, it is said, remove Harman, and when the team wins, the same is said, remove Harman.”

Anjum further said that now is the time to celebrate India’s victory, in such a situation the hard work of the players should not be ignored with such things. She further said, “I do not want to comment on this at this time because it will spoil the celebration of India’s victory.”

Anjum and Harman’s special bonding

The relationship between Harmanpreet and Anjum is not just that of player and senior. Even after winning the World Cup, Harman had openly said that Anjum Chopra supported him a lot in his initial days. Anjum recalled that when she saw Harman for the first time in domestic cricket, she understood that this player has talent of a different level. Anjum said, “In the Challenger Trophy tournament played in Mumbai in 2007-08, I saw how long this under-19 player could hit. That’s when I realized that Harman is special.”

She further said, “I never thought even for a moment that Harman is not a match winner. That’s why I have always been saying that Harman should be our captain.”

IND vs NZ Full Highlights: The Indian team made it to the semi-finals of the Women’s ODI World Cup 2025. On Thursday (23 October), in the match played against New Zealand at DY Patil Stadium, Team India defeated the opposing team by 53 runs under DLS. Openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal contributed significantly in helping the team win by scoring centuries.

Pratika scored 122 runs in 134 balls with the help of 13 fours and 2 sixes. Whereas Mandhana scored 109 runs in 95 balls by hitting 10 fours and 4 sixes. Both of them made a partnership of 212 runs (201 balls) for the first wicket, due to which the team could reach a big total of 340 runs.

Rain interfered in the match

There was also interference from rain in the match, due to which Team India, who came to bat first, got a chance to bat only 49 overs. After this, under DLS, New Zealand was given a target of 325 runs in 44 overs. While chasing this target, the Kiwi team could score only 271/8 runs on the board in 44 overs.

During this, Brooke Halliday played the biggest innings for New Zealand, scoring 81 runs in 84 balls with the help of 9 fours and 1 six. Apart from this, Isabella Gage played an inning of 65* runs in 51 balls with the help of 10 fours. However, both the batsmen could not make the team cross the victory line. During this period, Renuka Singh Thakur and Kranti Gaur took maximum 2-2 wickets for India.

Win after 3 consecutive defeats

This was Team India’s first win after three consecutive defeats in the tournament. Earlier, Team India under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur had faced defeat against South Africa, Australia and England. The team had also won the first two matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Now by defeating New Zealand the team saved itself from elimination. The Indian team has to play its last league match against Bangladesh on 26 October.

India was the last team to reach the semi-finals

Let us tell you that India became the last team to reach the semi-finals. Before this, Australia, South Africa and England had confirmed their place in the knockout stage.

Three teams have secured a place in the semi-finals in the Women’s World Cup 2025. Only the fourth slot is vacant, for which there is a war going on between 4 teams (India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). Bangladesh is the only team to be eliminated from the tournament so far. Australia, England and South Africa have reached the semi-finals. The Indian team has lost 3 consecutive matches and the path to the semi-finals is not looking very easy for them.

India’s semi-final equation

Talking about the Indian team, it has registered two wins in 5 matches so far. The team is currently at fourth position in the points table with four points and its net run rate is +0.526. India’s chances of going to the semi-finals seem high because among the four teams in the race for the semi-finals, only Team India’s net run rate is positive. Due to positive net run rate, Team India can easily get a ticket for the semi-finals by winning the next two matches.

If India loses to New Zealand on October 23, then it will have to hope that the Kiwis lose against England and with that India will have to win their last league match against Bangladesh. If the India-New Zealand match gets washed out due to rain then both the teams will have five points. In such a situation, on October 26, India will have to defeat Bangladesh at any cost and hope that Pakistan or Sri Lanka do not reach 6 points.

The doors to the semi-finals opened even on 6 points.

If the next two matches of the Indian team are washed out in rain, then it will have 6 points, yet India can enter the last-4. In such a situation, New Zealand should lose to England, after which Team India will go to the semi-finals on the basis of net run rate. New Zealand’s net run rate is -0.245 and India’s is +0.526.

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