<p>Navi Mumbai: Everyone who loves cricket in and around Mumbai wanted to be at the DY Patil Stadium here on Sunday with the hope of watching the Indian women make history.</p><p>The demand for tickets increased manifold the moment Harmanpreet Kaur and her girls made it to the final. So too the ticket prices.</p><p>Such was the demand that even journalists wearing their accreditation cards around their neck and making their way to the stadium to cover the final were asked by enthusiastic supporters if they had tickets to spare. “Sir, I will pay you more than the ticket price, sir,” one fan was heard telling a scribe.</p><p>Even the rain threat did not deter the fans to make their way into the stadium. They sat through the two-hour delay in start of play patiently that they did not want to miss any moment from this historic final that for the first time in 13 editions of ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup featured neither Australia nor England.</p><p>The stadium was filled to near-capacity of over 40,000 with a sea of blue, obviously. Such has been the growing popularity of women’s cricket in recent times that fans across both genders, more so the males, proudly wear the India jerseys with the names of Smriti, Harman and the like on their backs.</p>.Pant’s 90, late-order grit carry India A to 3-wicket win over South Africa A.<p>The atmosphere was electrifying, suited for the occasion that it would not have been a surprise if this was the most-attended Women’s World Cup final in this century with over 35,000 present. Already, records were set in this tournament with the India and Bangladesh league match at this very venue having 25,965 fans, the most for a league match in any World Cup. Naturally, the numbers swelled to 35,944 for the India vs Australia semifinal.</p><p>While every boundary and six was cheered by the crowd, almost bringing the stadium roof down, there was silence in the middle-overs when the boundaries drained for a period and when their favourite stars Smriti Mandhana fell short of a half-century and Shafali Verma missed her hundred. However, the crowd was back to its screaming best when Richa Ghosh struck two sixes and in the company of Deepti Sharma took the Indian total to two short of 300.</p>
<p>Navi Mumbai: Everyone who loves cricket in and around Mumbai wanted to be at the DY Patil Stadium here on Sunday with the hope of watching the Indian women make history.</p><p>The demand for tickets increased manifold the moment Harmanpreet Kaur and her girls made it to the final. So too the ticket prices.</p><p>Such was the demand that even journalists wearing their accreditation cards around their neck and making their way to the stadium to cover the final were asked by enthusiastic supporters if they had tickets to spare. “Sir, I will pay you more than the ticket price, sir,” one fan was heard telling a scribe.</p><p>Even the rain threat did not deter the fans to make their way into the stadium. They sat through the two-hour delay in start of play patiently that they did not want to miss any moment from this historic final that for the first time in 13 editions of ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup featured neither Australia nor England.</p><p>The stadium was filled to near-capacity of over 40,000 with a sea of blue, obviously. Such has been the growing popularity of women’s cricket in recent times that fans across both genders, more so the males, proudly wear the India jerseys with the names of Smriti, Harman and the like on their backs.</p>.Pant’s 90, late-order grit carry India A to 3-wicket win over South Africa A.<p>The atmosphere was electrifying, suited for the occasion that it would not have been a surprise if this was the most-attended Women’s World Cup final in this century with over 35,000 present. Already, records were set in this tournament with the India and Bangladesh league match at this very venue having 25,965 fans, the most for a league match in any World Cup. Naturally, the numbers swelled to 35,944 for the India vs Australia semifinal.</p><p>While every boundary and six was cheered by the crowd, almost bringing the stadium roof down, there was silence in the middle-overs when the boundaries drained for a period and when their favourite stars Smriti Mandhana fell short of a half-century and Shafali Verma missed her hundred. However, the crowd was back to its screaming best when Richa Ghosh struck two sixes and in the company of Deepti Sharma took the Indian total to two short of 300.</p>