Women’s Under-19 World Cup Final: Shafali Verma’s India and their tryst with destiny

Shafali Varma. (Photo: @BCCIWomen/Twitter)

The quest for a maiden women’s world title has come a full circle for India. Nearly 18 years on from their first qualification for a World Cup final, an Indian women’s team is in sight of the world champions’ crown again.

The dream the senior side couldn’t fulfil against a relentless Australia in the 2005 Women’s ODI World Cup final in South Africa now awaits realising with the junior team of the same country. When Shafali Verma leads India out to the JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom for the title bout of the inaugural Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup against England on Sunday, she’ll have a shot at reimagining history and writing it anew — for herself and India.

“Leading India in a World Cup final means a lot to me,” said Verma, a senior T20 World Cup and Commonwealth Games finalist, after India’s final nets session at the U-19 World Cup, on match eve, which was also her 19th birthday. “Many years ago, my papa had told me, ‘You will play U-19 cricket for India someday and you have to win us the World Cup.' I will bear those words in mind as I head into the final."

“Having played the 2020 T20 World Cup final and the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games final, I have told my U-19 team-mates that they should look to enjoy themselves in the final and not be overwhelmed at the prospect of a World Cup final. If we enjoy our game, our match will go well; if we stress, we’ll have a stressful match.”

On the leadership front, Verma had received words of advice from both Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur, the two other women to have ever led India to a World Cup final, coming into the tournament. On the eve of the final, Verma, along with all the other members of India’s U-19 World Cup touring party, even picked the brains of feted javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, India’s first Olympic champion in track and field, who is currently in Potchefstroom for a camp.

Looking back on her first brush with captaincy at the international level, at a world tournament replete with history and significance at that, Verma explained how fostering an egalitarian environment within the dressing room has been key to her journey as India U-19 captain so far.

“When I joined the U-19 team here in South Africa last month, I had told all the players that we must enjoy our cricket and that they must treat me as an equal and not as a senior because on the field, we are all U-19 players, we are equal,” Verma said. “I have told them from Day One that we must all feel free to voice our opinions. Who knows, some of those insights could help us individually? Even now, I am trying to keep my team-mates at ease… It’s a final, after all, and everyone is excited to play.”

Verma was more than two years away — and still in her tweens — when nearly six years ago, on a heady evening in late-July, eventual champions England denied India a fairytale finish to their breakout 2017 ODI World Cup campaign. A heartbreaking nine-run victory in the final at a full-house Lord’s consigned India to a runners-up finish.

On the path of U-19 World Cup glory for Verma’s side, too, stand a formidable English side, unvanquished in the tournament and fresh off of a humdinger of a last-ball victory in a low-scoring thriller against Australia in the semi-final a day ago.

“I, too, watched that game; it was very good. I watched it on TV, and I was hollering, like, ‘Come on,” Verma said, smiling. “We have seen England’s batsman and bowlers and we have the strategies [drawn up] and we are just going to execute things … Whatever plans we have, we have done [according to them] in our practice session. All the girls on our squad know their role, what they have to do in the final.”

A threat potent and unknown alike, England, in all their all-round brilliance start favourites as the two sides meet each other for the first time in the U-19 World Cup. India, unbeaten in the warm-ups and the group stage, were exposed suspect — and somewhat over-reliant on Verma and her fellow opener Shweta Sehrawat — in the meltdown they suffered against Australia, in the second of their three Super-Six fixtures.

That heavy, seven-wicket defeat last week was India’s only false step in their run to the final. By Verma’s own admission, it even caused her a sleepless night ahead of their must-win Super Stage fixture against Sri Lanka. The drubbing, campaign-threatening as it was, forced a recalibration on the part of India. They bounced back with much tighter, all-round performances against Sri Lanka in their last Super-Six game, and then against the more-fancied opponents in New Zealand in the semi-final, with both face-offs ending in big-margin victories for India.

“All of us were quite down after the Australia defeat — we were emotional, nervous, and worried if we would make the semi-final and the final,” Verma recalled. “We just tried learning from our mistakes in that game, and our head coach, Nooshin [Al Khadeer] ma’am, also helped us a lot to figure things out.”

With group-stage standings and points carried into the Super Six, the tournament format helped India finish atop the Super Six table in Group 1 and move into the semi-finals without much concerns — eventually. That was down to a net run-rate superior to both Australia and hosts South Africa as all three teams finished on six points, their resounding seven-wicket Super-Six win against Sri Lanka proving critical.

Against England in the final, proceedings could distill into a matter of fine margins for India. Sehrawat, the leading run-scorer of the tournament separated from opposition captain Grace Scrivens on the chart by just three runs, will be put through the paces against a well-rounded English attack. Hannah Baker, the England legspinner who picked a Player-of-the-Match-winning three-for in the semi-final, will be as much a threat as left-arm quick Alexa Stonehouse and her right-arm opening tandem Ellie Anderson.

Soumya Tiwari at No. 3, with scores of 25 not-out and 22 in her last two innings since returning to the line-up after being dropped following India’s tournament opener, appears hungry to prove a point in her designated anchor role. The appetite for taking on oneself the onus of steering India to victory has only grown for legspinner Parshavi Chopra, too, as underscored by her back-to-back Player-of-the-Match awards in India’s last two encounters.

Much of their India’s fortunes on Sunday will also rely on Mannat Kashyap. The Punjab left-arm spinner’s eight wickets in the tournament — one fewer than India’s leading wicket-taker Chopra’s nine — have punctuated miserly spells that have routinely stemmed the run-flow, offset the opposition batters’ rhythm, no matter the phase of the innings. Her tight, attacking lines could test the England top-order’s propensity for accessing the leg side even when the deliveries little warrant such choice of strokes.

But in a game so decisive in the history of women’s cricket in India, at a time when the BCCI’s soon-to-be-launched Women’s Premier League has got the world talking about women’s cricket, the foremost figure in the spotlight would be Verma. A game-changer in her own right, having injected a never-seen-before brand of big-hitting in Indian women’s cricket since her senior international debut in 2019, the final could be a foregone conclusion if the India U-19 captain strikes big and quick.

With the ball, too, she might be the "X" factor she’s been in India’s attack all tournament. Her part-time offspin has caused full-blown headaches to the opponents and, on her day, Verma can eclipse all else on the wickets’ column, as she did in the first warm-up match against Australia.

Overcoming England won’t be a cakewalk. But a bit of luck and oodles of trademark pluck could a long way towards Verma making January 29, 2023 a day to remember for herself, her U-19s colleagues, and the whole of India.