What's the real success of WPL? 2024 final answers

IT was a momentous occasion for women's cricket when Australia and India walked onto a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 8, 2020.

- KALYANI MANGALE

No one had seen 86, 174 fans come in for a women's cricket game before.

For two teenagers, then 15-year-old Shafali Verma and 16-year-old Richa Ghosh, it was the biggest day of their young careers. Despite dominating the entire tournament, Verma could not make her mark in the final and Ghosh, who came in as a concussion substitute, played her shots, but it was not enough. Verma was inconsolable after the match, but anyone who watched her throughout the World Cup and even in the tri-series before the marquee event knew the talent the youngster had.

Four years have passed. In this time, they have led India to the first-ever U19 T20 World Cup victory, represented the senior side in the two ICC tournaments and have also been part of the first season of the WPL. Both had contrasting seasons with Verma being the second-highest runscorer for the Delhi Capitals while Ghosh struggling to find her feet in the star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore. However, one look at the numbers in the second season of Women's Premier League will tell you how much they have grown.