Watch: Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues console emotional South Africa players after India’s historic World Cup win

Humble in victory and gracious in defeat-values that every athlete aspires to uphold. The Indian women’s team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, demonstrated this mindset superbly after defeating South Africa in the Women’s ODI World Cup final on Sunday. As India celebrated their first World Cup victory, several South African players broke down in tears. Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, and others paused their celebrations to console the devastated Proteas, earning admiration from fans across the world.

Following the final, Indian stars Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues were seen consoling South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp, Laura Wolvaardt, and other heartbroken players in a video and photos shared on social media by the International Cricket Council.

India and South Africa both aimed to win their first-ever ODI World Cup, but only one could emerge victorious. India created history with a 52-run win, powered by stellar performances from Shafali Verma and Deepti Sharma. Despite the loss, South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt expressed pride in her team’s resilience and determination throughout the tournament.

“I could not be prouder of this team for the campaign we had. Brilliant cricket throughout, but outplayed today (by India). Unfortunate to be on the losing side, but we will definitely grow from this. (On coming back from 69 all out and 97 all out against Australia) We did so well to put those couple of bad games behind us. We were either really good or really bad, but thankfully more of the really good.

“Amazing tournament for a lot of the players, and proud of the resilience we showed. (Balancing batting and captaincy) Probably did not have my best year leading into the World Cup and did not start it well. Overthinking, it was not good. It is just another game of cricket, trying to separate the two, and that sort of freed me up a bit to play my natural game and then focus on the captaincy at a different time,” Wolvaardt said after the match.

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