A heavy cloud of uncertainty hovers over the 2025 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Final between India women's cricket team and South Africa women's cricket team at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, not from the batting line-ups, but from the skies. With forecast models showing intermittent rain and a significant chance of storms, tournament organisers have prepared a backup plan: Monday, 3 November 2025 will serve as a reserve day should Sunday’s showpiece be washed out.
According to the official playing conditions, if play begins on Sunday but is interrupted, the match may resume on the reserve day from the same point at which it stopped. Moreover, in order for the contest to yield a definitive winner, each team must play at least 20 overs. In other words, the organisers are striving to ensure that the final is decided on the field rather than handed over by default.
Yet the most dramatic contingency arises if neither day yields a result, if weather prevents sufficient play on both Sunday and the reserve Monday. In that case, under the rules laid out by the International Cricket Council, both India and South Africa would be declared joint winners of the Women’s World Cup. This outcome, unprecedented in the tournament’s history, looms as a real possibility given the forecasts.
For the players and fans alike, this raises a bittersweet prospect. On one hand, the ultimate vision remains a clear‐cut champion lifting the trophy, the celebration, the legacy. On the other hand, the spectre of “shared glory” will feel unsatisfying to many, especially for India, playing at home and chasing a long-awaited first title, and for South Africa, in pursuit of their maiden triumph. However, a shared title would still mark a landmark moment for women’s cricket globally.
As the day unfolds, everyone involved must factor in the weather element: the toss may be delayed, overs reduced, start times altered. The cricketing contest will still want to deliver, but the conditions will demand flexibility. Fans attending or watching will need patience and hope: that the sun breaks through, that covers come off, that play happens. Regardless of how it plays out, when the final act begins at DY Patil, the stakes extend beyond the boundary ropes, cricket history is in the balance, and so too is a doorway for the women’s game to take a leap forward.
