Forty-two years after Kapil Dev’s unfancied Indian men’s team stunned Clive Lloyd’s mighty West Indies at Lord’s and changed the sporting identity of a nation, India stood on the brink of another generational shift at the start of Sunday’s ICC Women’s World Cup final against South Africa. As soon as Harmanpreet Kaur held on to the catch to dismiss Nadine de Klark to bundle the Proteas out for 246 in their chase of 299, that moment finally arrived at the stroke of midnight!

If 1983 proved that India could belong on the world stage, 2025 proved that women could own it. The heroes this time, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, may now do for young girls what Kapil, Gavaskar, Amarnath and company did for an entire generation of boys by reshaping aspirations and ma

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