Navi Mumbai, Nov 3 (IANS) Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar congratulated the Indian women’s cricket team for their emphatic World Cup title win as the Women in Blue beat South Africa to lift their maiden ICC title on Sunday night here at DY Patil Stadium.

Playing their third 50-over World Cup final, India, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, beat the Laura Wolvaardt-led side by 52 runs to lift the World Cup trophy and to be named the world champions for the first time in the history of the sport in India.

Tendulkar reserved special praise for the team as he took to X and wrote, “1983 inspired an entire generation to dream big and chase those dreams. Today, our Women’s Cricket Team has done something truly special. They have inspired countless young girls across the country to pick up a bat and ball, take the field and believe that they too can lift that trophy one day. This is a defining moment in the journey of Indian women’s cricket. Well done, Team India. You’ve made the whole nation proud.”

Speaking of the match, India posted 298 runs on the board courtesy of top knocks by Shafali Verma and Deepti Sharma. The duo did equally well with the ball as the former picked up two crucial wickets during India’s defense, dismissing Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp, and the latter finished with a magnificent five-wicket haul.

While Shafali was named the Player of the Match, Deepti bagged the Player of the Tournament award for scoring 200-plus runs and picking 20 wickets in the tournament, thereby finishing as the highest wicket-taker of the World Cup. The spin-bowling all-rounder hit the final nail in the coffin as South Africa were all out for 246 runs.

With that, the Indian women’s cricket team finally ended their ICC trophy drought.

–IANS

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