Shafali Verma struck her first half-century in three years in ODIs while Deepti Sharma bagged her third of this Women's World Cup as India posted 298/7 in their 50 overs against South Africa in the final at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.

Shafali, at 21 years, the youngest to score a fifty in the World Cup final, struck a superb 87 coming into the ODI team after a year and raised a century partnership with Smriti Mandhana (45). South Africa pulled things back in the middle overs, but Deepti Sharma scored her third half-century of this World Cup to prop up the innings. She and Richa Ghosh added 47 runs for the sixth wicket to help India push closer to the 300-run mark. With a little better execution, they could have taken the team past 300.

Asked to bat first, India got off

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