Harmanpreet Kaur becomes 11th captain to win Women's World Cup: List of winning skippers, champions from 1973 to 2025
Harmanpreet Kaur is the first Indian woman to win a ICC World Cup. Earlier, under Mithali Raj, India had reached the finals in 2005 and 2017, but lost on both occasions.
Harmanpreet Kaur became the first Indian captain and 11th overall to win a ICC Women's World Cup after the Indian team defeated South Africa by 52 runs in the final at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Defending 299 runs in the final, Deepti Sharma took a five-wicket haul while Shafali Verma's all-round show helped the hosts restrict the opposition to 246 all out in 45.3 overs to script history at home soil.
With this victory, Harmanpreet became the only second Indian captain to win a World Cup on home soil. MS Dhoni achieved the same before Harmanpreet when the he led the Indian men's team to 2011 triumph at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
England's Rachael Heyhoe-Flint was the first-ever captain to win a Women's World Cup in 1973. For the record Australia's Sharon Tredea (1982 & 1988) and Belinda Clarke (1997 & 2005) have the distinction of winning the Women's World Cup twice each.
India had reached the finals of a Women's World Cup twice before in 2005 and 2017, but lost, with Mithali Raj being the captain on both occasions.
List of Women's World Cup winners from 1973 to 2025
| Year | Winner | Winning Captain | Result | Runners-up | Runners-up Captain |
| 1973 | England | Rachael Heyhoe Flint | England won on points table (20 pts) | Australia (17 pts) | Margaret Jennings |
| 1978 | Australia | Margaret Jennings | Australia won on points table (6 pts) | England (4 pts) | Rachael Heyhoe Flint |
| 1982 | Australia | Sharon Tredrea | Australia won by 3 wickets | England | Susan Goatman |
| 1988 | Australia | Sharon Tredrea | Australia won by 8 wickets | England | Lynne Thomas |
| 1993 | England | Karen Smithies | England won by 67 runs | New Zealand | Sarah Illingworth |
| 1997 | Australia | Belinda Clark | Australia won by 5 wickets | New Zealand | Maia Lewis |
| 2000 | New Zealand | Emily Drumm | New Zealand won by 4 runs | Australia | Belinda Clark |
| 2005 | Australia | Belinda Clark | Australia won by 98 runs | India | Mithali Raj |
| 2009 | England | Charlotte Edwards | England won by 4 wickets | New Zealand | Haidee Tiffen |
| 2013 | Australia | Jodie Fields | Australia won by 114 runs | West Indies | Merissa Aguilleira |
| 2017 | England | Heather Knight | England won by 9 runs | India | Mithali Raj |
| 2022 | Australia | Meg Lanning | Australia won by 71 runs | England | Heather Knight |
| 2025 | India | Harmanpreet Kaur | India won by 52 runs | South Africa | Laura Wolvaardt |
Notably, it was Harmanpreet's first-ever ODI World Cup as an Indian captain. She also became the oldest captain to win a Women's World Cup at 36 years and 239 days. This is also the first time a women's team have won a World Cup after losing three matches in the tournament.
Before Sunday, only two teams have won the World Cup after losing three matches in the tournament - Pakistan in 1992 and England in 2019 (both in men's tournaments).
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