India, Nov. 3 -- It was indeed god's plan when it came to Shafali Verma. The 21-year-old, who was not named in the 15-member squad for the Women's World Cup, made it to the Indian team for the knockout stages after an unfortunate injury to Pratika Rawal. Before the semi-final against Australia, Shafali remarked that maybe God had sent her to do something special for the team, and this is exactly what happened on the all-important final as she turned out to be the ultimate game-changer, returning with 87 runs and two wickets against South Africa at the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

When she scored 87 runs off 78 balls with the help of seven fours and two sixes, enabling India to post 298 runs on the board, one thought that her job h...