New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon congratulated the Indian women’s cricket team on winning the ICC Cricket World Cup (Women), calling their performance “outstanding” and “truly world-class” after watching highlights of the final match against South Africa.
Expressing his views on Women in Blue’s clinching the ICC World Cup, the 55-year-old labelled the Indian team as “world class”, adding that they “deserved to win” the World Cup. He also said that he would have loved to see New Zealand lift the coveted trophy, but he doesn’t care as long as it is someone who beats Australia.
“I watched the highlights of the game last night against South Africa… I just want to say congratulations to them. They were outstanding, truly world-class, and they
deserved to win. We’re very proud of them even though we would have loved New Zealand to win…As long as someone beats Australia, that’s all we care about, and that’s what you guys do so well,” Luxon said in an interview with news agency ANI.
Australia and New Zealand have rivalries across various sports, with cricket being one of them.
India Clinched the World Cup
Playing their third World Cup final, India became only the fourth country to lift the coveted trophy. The Harmanpreet-led side joined Australia, England and New Zealand as ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup winners.
The Women in Blue were crowned the champions of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 on Sunday at the DY Patil Stadium with their 52-run win over South Africa.
India posted a total of 298 before bundling out the Protea women for 246. Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma starred with both bat and ball to help India secure a tense win after South Africa had won the toss and elected to bowl.
Chasing 299, South Africa looked well set at one stage to get to the target, but Deepti Sharma’s breakthrough sparked a dramatic collapse. After she dismissed Annerie Dercksen, the Proteas crumbled from 209 for 5 to 246 all out. Deepti Sharma had turned the tide for India with a brilliant spell that yielded three crucial wickets, including that of South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt. Deepti bagged 5 wickets for 39 runs from 9.3 overs.
Shafali Verma created memories of a lifetime by scoring 87 in India’s 298 for 7 and then grabbed a couple of crucial wickets to restrict the Proteas Women to 246. Shafali was declared the Player of the Match, while Deepti Sharma won the Player of the Tournament award.
(With inputs from agencies)
