The Indian women's cricket team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, ended years of agony by winning the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup. The team had come tantalisingly close to lifting the silverware on three previous occasions - 2017 being the closest. Each time they stumbled before finally scripting history at the DY Patil Stadium earlier this month.
The victory marked an important chapter for the sport, and at the heart of it all was Shafali Verma, who was notably nowhere in the picture until the semifinals. She was not part of the initial squad, nor was her name featured in the reserves, and was only added as a last-minute replacement for Pratika Rawal, who injured her ankle while fielding in the dead rubber against Bangladesh.
Addressing the media for the first time after joining the team, the 21-year-old from Rohtak made her intentions clear. "Absolutely, I’ll do well, 200 per cent," she said before the semifinals against the invincible Australia. While things didn't pan out as Shafali had hoped, destiny certainly had saved the best for the last, the occasion when it mattered the most.
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In the finals against South Africa, which India won by 52 runs, Shafali smoked a blistering 87 off 78 and later rolled her arms to inject two crucial blows, thus breaking any momentum the Proteas had built in the 299-run chase.
In an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, Shafali opened up about her mentality, the feeling of being part of history, playing the World Cup final in front of her cricketing idol, and plenty more. Here are the excerpts...
Can you tell us how the last couple of days have been, winning a World Cup, being part of history?
"People are giving so much love after winning the World Cup. People are saying, “Thank you for making India proud”, and this is why we play cricket. So hearing these things feels very good."
You are just 21 and you have already been part of two World Cup finals. Can you tell us how different it felt heading into this one from the last time?
"I worked on my strategy. In all the World Cups I've played, I've tried to perform well but used less strategy. When we reached the final, I adopted the strategy of playing along the ground. There were two or three plans: if this one doesn't work, then this one will, or I have to do this one. And all my plans were working, I was feeling really good. I was trying to build a long innings. And whatever I've done in this World Cup, I'll try to show that in every World Cup in future."
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Addressing the media before your first match in the World Cup, you spoke about being "200 per cent" confident; can you tell us about your mentality, how prepared you were to make an impression?
"I said that ("200 per cent") because the World Cup was being played in our country and I'm familiar with the conditions. The best thing is that there's a different level of confidence whenever matches are being played in India, considering the home support. Also, I put in a lot of hard work on myself in the past year and was confident that I would take the team to victory in at least one match ('main confident thi ki team ko ek na ek match apne dum pe jeeta kar zarur jaungi'), because I just had the semifinals and finals.
"When I joined the team, I tried to switch as quickly as possible. I used the net sessions to work on my planning, hence the ones before the semis and finals were very long, very strategic."
You are the future of this team, an inspiration to many, but can you tell us about your cricketing inspiration?
"My inspiration is Sachin (Tendulkar) sir, not only mine, but my entire family. We know how many big records he has; what he has done for the team. So I try to follow his path. In the final, I saw that he had come to watch the match, so this in itself gave me more confidence. My inspiration has always been Sachin sir, and I am trying to follow his path and hope to make big records like him for India."
Shafali Verma is supported by JSW Sports, and the interaction was facilitated by them.
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