Shafali Verma Named ICC ‘Player of the Month’ for World Cup Final Heroics
Many innings in cricket go down in history, not just on the scorecard. The World Cup final innings played by Team India Women’s opener Shafali Verma is one such example. Indian opener Shafali, who performed brilliantly against South Africa in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 title match, has been named the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for the month of November. In the final held at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, Shafali changed the face of the match with both bat and ball. Ending the long wait, Shafali played a key role in delivering the first ICC Women’s World Cup title.
Shafali, who opened the innings in the title match, scored 87 runs. Shafali and Smriti Mandhana formed an opening partnership of 104 runs, giving India a good start. She excelled under pressure with this restraint. Along with batting, Shafali also showed her power with the ball. She took 2 wickets for 36 runs in seven overs and demolished South Africa’s strong batting order. South Africa sent batsmen Sune Loos and Marizanne Kapp to the pavilion. That put the Proteas team under pressure. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur kept her faith. India bowled out South Africa for 246 runs in this match. In fact, Shafali did not get a place in the World Cup. She joined the team after Pratik Rawal was injured in the match against Bangladesh. In the semi-final, she scored just 10 runs against Australia. However, she impressed with her outstanding performance in the final. Team India defeated South Africa by 52 runs and won the World Cup title. Shafali was named the Player of the Match in that match.
With this performance, she was selected as the ICC Player of the Month. After receiving the award from the ICC, Shafali said that the World Cup did not go as she expected. The ending was more beautiful than I expected. She commented that she was grateful to be able to contribute to the team in the final and to be a part of winning the title in front of her home crowd. She said that she dedicates this award to the team, coaches, family members and everyone who has supported her on this journey. She said that they will win or lose as a team. But the award belongs to the team. Shafali Verma will appear in the five-match T20 International series against Sri Lanka starting on December 21 in Visakhapatnam. She will be playing for Delhi Capitals in the Women’s Premier League (WPL). The team has retained the opener.
