IND-W vs SA-W: India lift second straight Women’s U-19 T20 World Cup title, crush South Africa by nine wickets in final

India crushed South Africa by nine wickets in an one-sided final to lift their second straight Women's U-19 T20 World Cup title on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur. India had lifted the inaugural title in 2023 under the leadership of Shafali Verma.

This is also the second time India became U-19 World Cup champions against South Africa in Malaysia. Back in 2008, India had lifted the junior one-day World Cup by beating South Africa in the final, under the captaincy of now batting stalwart Virat Kohli.

Chasing 83 runs for victory, India lost opener G Kamalini in the fifth over before Trisha Gongadi (44 not out) and Sanika Chalke (26 not out) stitched an unbeaten 48 runs for the second wicket to defend their title in 11.2 overs.

In fact, it was Sanika Chalke who hit the winning runs. Earlier, Trisha Gongadi led the Indian bowling attack with 3/15 to bowl out the Proteas for 82 in 20 overs. Vaishnavi Sharma (2/23), Aayushi Shukla (2/9) and Parunika Sisodia (2/6) also took wickets for India.

Mieke van Voorst (23) top-scored for South Africa after opting to bat. Only four of their batters could score in double-digit figures. Four of their batters also could not opened their accounts.

“Dreamt of it from the past two years, can't explain how I feel. Remarkable step for us,” said Sanika Chalke after the win. This is also the first time India won the Women's U-19 T20 World Cup title without losing a single game.

India dominate among batters, bowlers

Trisha Gongadi finished as top run-getter in the tournament with 309 runs from seven games including a record unbeaten century. Her opening partner G Kamalini was third in the list with 143 runs from same number of games.

Among the bowlers, the Girls in Blue dominated too. Vaishnavi Sharma and Aayushi Shukla finished one-two with 17 and 14 wickets. Parunika Sisodia was placed fourth with 10 wickets.