The Indian team created history on Sunday, January 29 by winning the inaugural U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Potchefstroom after beating England in the final. The Shafali Verma-led side apart from a blip against Australia in Super Six was sensational, especially the bowlers who didn’t let the likes of Sri Lanka, New Zealand in the semis and then England in the final have much say with the bat. On Sunday too, the bowlers restricted England to a paltry 68 and chased the total down with six overs and seven wickets in the bag. As soon as the Verma-led side etched its name in history, reactions started pouring in and the senior men’s team had a message for them too.
“Today was a landmark day for the Indian women’s Under-19 team and they had a fantastic day,” said the Indian team head coach Rahul Dravid as the BCCI shared the video after the second T20I against New Zealand in Lucknow. Dravid then passed the mic to Prithvi Shaw, who led the Indian U-19 boys’ team to World Cup glory in 2018.
“I think it’s a great achievement and everyone wants to congratulate the U-19 women’s team. So, congratulations,” said Shaw as echoes of congrats took over the room. However, interestingly when Shaw took the mic, the T20 captain Hardik Pandya and his deputy Suryakumar Yadav took a keen interest in listening to what the former U-19 World Cup-winning captain had to say. Surya, who is Shaw’s teammate in domestic cricket for Mumbai, was standing right behind him and bent over with a smile to listen to him, while skipper Hardik was on the extreme left of the young opener as he too leaned forward in anticipation.
It was an emotional moment for young Shafali, who turned 19 on the eve of the World Cup final, as she was in tears because of the loss with the senior women’s team after losing the T20 World Cup final in 2020 against Australia and on Sunday, the tears were of joy and happiness. The BCCI secretary Jay Shah announced a reward of INR 5 crore for the whole team while offering them to witness the third T20I between the senior men’s team and New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, February 1.
