One of the first questions, inevitably, was about the feeling of finally touching a trophy that had long eluded India.
“I’m just trying to express what I’m feeling. I’m numb, I’m not able to understand,” Harmanpreet said. “So, it’s just that there were ups and downs, but the team had self-belief. I’ve been saying this since day one. We weren’t looking to the left or right. We were only looking at our main end goal.
“We felt we could win from the first ball itself because the way our team was playing in the last three games, a lot of things changed for us, especially our self-belief. We have played good cricket for a long time. We knew what we could do as a team. We knew there would be tough conditions for batting, but credit goes to Smriti [Mandhana] and Shafali [Verma]; they handled the first 10 overs very well.”
There was laughter, too. Harmanpreet’s luck with the toss hadn’t improved all tournament – she won one in nine attempts – and she lost it again on the day of the final. “From the first ball itself, I had the belief that it doesn’t matter – because we don’t normally win the toss – we knew we had to bat first,” she said, smiling.
“Our aim was simple. We knew that if we thought of a big target, we would come under pressure,” Harmanpreet said. “The main thing was to keep batting and keep playing our game. We tried to score 300 runs on the board; we were one run short. But after that, I think we came onto the field as a strong unit. Whenever we needed it, we got a breakthrough. It was a very good match.
“It seems easy to say now, but there was a lot of tension in between when they were batting – like Laura, she was not giving a chance. But at the end of the day, I’m feeling great. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m just trying to tell you what I’m feeling.”
“Jhulan Of was my biggest support,” Harmanpreet said, when asked what it meant to share that moment with former players. “When I joined the team, she was leading it. She always supported me in my early days when I was very raw and didn’t know much about cricket. Anjum Oftoo. Both of them have been a great support for me. I’m very grateful that I got to share a special moment with them. It was a very emotional moment. I think we all were waiting for this. Finally, we were able to touch this trophy.”
The campaign itself had been a deeply emotional one. Harmanpreet revealed how injuries to Yastika Bhatia and Pratika Rawal had left the dressing room in tears.
“When she [Pratika] got injured, everybody was crying…yet, everybody was so positive. Everyone was thinking that our end goal was this trophy. We had to keep working hard day and night. And this is the result.”
We were waiting badly for this moment, and today we got a chance to live it. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m so happy and so proud of this team
Harmanpreet Kaur
“The last month has been very interesting,” Harmanpreet said. “It’s very rare that things don’t go according to your plan, and yet you stay so positive. After that day [the loss against England]a lot changed for us. Every time, we cannot go on repeating the same things. We had to come with a strong mind.”
That defeat to England proved transformative. The squad turned inward, working on visualisation and meditation sessions to refocus.
“That night changed a lot for us,” she added. “It had an impact on everyone. We were more prepared for the World Cup. We started visualisation and meditation. That showed we were here for something, and this time we had to do it.”
There have been parallels drawn between this and India’s men’s World Cup win in 1983. For a side that had reached finals and semi-finals but always fallen just short, Harmanpreet saw this win as the long-awaited shift Indian women’s cricket.
“We have been talking about this for many years – we’ve been playing good cricket, but we had to win one big tournament. Without that, we couldn’t talk about change…we were waiting badly for this moment, and today we got a chance to live it. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m so happy and so proud of this team.”
“I’ve played many World Cups with her [Mandhana]. Every time we lost, we went home heartbroken and stayed quiet for a few days. When we returned, we always said, ‘we have to start again from ball one’. It was heartbreaking because we played so many World Cups – reaching finals, semi-finals, and sometimes not even that far. We were always thinking, when will we break this?”
The 39,555-strong Navi Mumbai crowd stayed through a two-hour rain delay, unrelenting in their chants for the home side. The DY Patil Stadium, which had hosted several women’s international and WPL fixtures, and long seen as the home of women’s cricket in India, once again proved a lucky venue. Harmanpreet also shared an anecdote about how the side felt relieved when the venue had changed from Bengaluru to Navi Mumbai in August.
“As soon as we got to know that our venue had been changed to DY Patil Stadium, we all got so happy because we’ve always played good cricket there. We said, ‘We’ve come home now, and we’ll start fresh.’ We didn’t want to look back at previous World Cups, we left them there. The new World Cup had just started.”
Celebrations stretched late into the night. After the victory lap and presentations, the team stayed on the ground with friends and family before heading to their hotel with a to go procession.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment. The celebration will go on all night. And then let’s see what BCCI is planning for us,” Harmanpreet quipped.
Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
