India women's team gatecrashes Smriti Mandhana's post-match interview, takes her away to celebrate in wild scenes

Smriti Mandhana was swept up by her teammates midway through an on-field interview as players were involved in joyous scenes.

A first women’s World Cup triumph was celebrated in style by the Indian players right through the night at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Right after midnight had struck, Harmanpreet Kaur took an overhead catch and sprinted off celebrating, the Indian captain rightly the one with the final say, and was immediately surrounded by her teammates as the celebrations began.

Smriti Mandhana is swept up by her teammates during post-match celebrations by her teammates.(Screengrab)

And the celebrations wouldn’t stop any time soon: as support staff, family members, and more made their way onto the field, select players completed on-field interviews as the trophy presentation was prepared. Amongst these was Smriti Mandhana, who remained her cool, calm and stoic self as she reflected on the journey to a first ICC senior trophy for the Indian women’s team.

However, there was no stopping her from being swept up in the joy of the celebrations as well: her interview was interrupted and cut short as a big horde of her teammates, led by Renuka Singh Thakur and Harleen Deol, emerged from the background of the picture and enveloped her in a wave of players, taking their star player amongst them to continue celebrating.

The group would also be supported by Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet emerging from the other side with an Indian flag, wrapping up Smriti in the tricolour.

Mandhana's crucial opening contribution in the final

In a moment that showed not only the camaraderie present in this group that helped them get over the final hurdle but also the importance of this achievement as they finally won a trophy, that too on home turf, Renuka would also lift up Smriti in celebration, before an emotional opening batter went down as even more teammates celebrated her contribution in the victory.

In a year that has seen Mandhana be in the form of her life and shatter records, she turned up when her team needed her by top scoring for India with 434 runs in the tournament. This included a crucial century against New Zealand in a must-win league stage match, alongside a string of good scores against tough opposition even during a tough phase for India.

In return, her teammates would step up and show up for India when she had a couple of quiet nights in the knockout stages. Her 45 against South Africa helped set the stage alongside Shafali Verma in the first innings with a 104-run opening partnership, before Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh’s efforts pushed the team later on.