ODI Women's World Cup 2025: Harmanpreet Kaur expresses readiness for title clash

So who will hold the Womenrsquos World Cup trophy for the first time in their life mdash India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur or her South African Laura counterpart Wolvaardt The answer to this allimportant question depends on which team holds their nerve and does not succumb to the pressure of this mega finalBoth Harmanpreet and Wolvaardt appeared confident and excited on the eve of the title battle as they posed alongside the prestigious trophyMassive home supportThe hosts will have the added edge of playing in front of around 45000 home spectators at the DY Patil Stadium For Harmanpreet 36 who is playing her fifth World Cup across formats it will probably be her last chance to grab the big prize which is due to her ever since she played that epic matchwinning 115ball unbeaten 171 against Australia in the 2017 World Cup semifinal Vicecaptain Smriti Mandhana 389 runs in the competition who is the second leading rungetter after Wolvaardt 470 runs and scored an impressive 109 against New Zealand in the league game at the same venue might well have saved her best for last Then of course there is local girl Jemimah Rodrigues who inspired with her matchwinning unbeaten 127 against the mighty Australians in the semifinal on Thursday also instilling bigmatch confidence in her teammates in the bargainHarmanpreetrsquos message for her teammates was crystal clear ldquoWhen you are at a stage like this playing the final match of the World Cup I donrsquot think there can be a bigger motivation Our entire team is charged up standing alongside each other with prayers and blessings This shows how much this team is together and how ready we are for this match Now itrsquos all about giving your best strategy and everythingrdquo Harmanpreet said at the prematch press conference on Saturday Indiarsquos bowling department will depend on pacers Kranti Gaud nine wickets in the competition and Renuka Singh Thakur three wickets to give them a good start Though the DY Patil Stadium track seems to be a battingfriendly strip spinners Deepti Sharma 17 wickets Shree Charani 13 and Radha Yadav 4 are more capable of troubling the Proteas with their turn and guileThough India got their momentum back after beating NZ and Australia in backtoback matches the fact that they lost to the South Africans by three wickets in the league phase at Visakhapatnam on October 9 could play on the back of their minds South Africa also began their World Cup campaign with a 10wicket defeat to England in Guwahati and then managed to post just 97 versus Australians in Indore before they picked up their game and beat England in the semis Harmanpreet realises the potential of this Proteas side ldquoThey SA have played very well despite a poor start The way they have come back into this tournament has been outstanding to watch SA are a very balanced side We know that they have a good bowling attack and at the same time there is a lot of depth in their batting too But our team has also got a lot of positives It will be a very interesting final and we are mentally and physically preparing ourselves for that level Hopefully we will enjoy ourselves tomorrowrdquo said Harmanpreet when asked about her teamrsquos defeat to SA in the league phaselsquoIt will be a very tough gamersquoSA lost their last two T20 World Cup finals in 2023 to Australia in Cape Town and against New Zealand in the 2024 edition at Dubai However SA captain Wolvaardt believes her team has a good chance of winning this time ldquoItrsquos going to be a very tough game with the whole crowd behind India probably a sold out stadium but I think that also puts a lot of pressure on them They India have the whole country behind them and are expected to win I guess that sort of plays in our favour hopefullyrdquo said Wolvaardt2013Ind vs SA headtohead in 34 WODIs mdash one match ended in no resultRs 40crPrize money for winners of the Womenrsquos World CupRs 20crPrize money for runnersup of the Womenrsquos World Cup