South Africa pulled themselves together after the embarrassment of 69 all out and 97 all out, while India made it to the knockouts without beating any of the three teams that finished above them on the points table. South Africa unearthed new finishers and new heroes. India dusted themselves off after losses that could so easily have been wins. And by the time the two teams traversed around India - via Colombo - and arrived in the knockouts, they ran into their nemesis.

South Africa broke the hoodoo in Guwahati against England with an emphatic win and India enthralled the home crowd in Navi Mumbai by overpowering the mighty Australians. We now head for a grand finish, the first ODI World Cup final that features neither Australia nor England, and will crown a new world champion on Sunday night. By sending back two of the strongest teams in World Cup history with the assignment of planning for the future, both India and South Africa stand of the cusp of history.

The winners will not only lift the trophy for the first time, but could reshape the contours of the women's game, in their homelands if not globally. Both countries are still grappling with deep-rooted issues that hinder women's access to education, employment and much else. Irrespective of the outcome on Sunday, the occasion has the power to establish players like Nonkululeko Mlaba and Kranti Gaud - who overcame enormous hurdles growing up in under-resourced regions - as household names and encourage young women, and their parents, to make them the next Smriti Mandhana or Marizanne Kapp.

Sunday could also be the dawn of a new era in ODIs, instil belief in the finalists and other teams watching that World Cup finals aren't always going to be dominated by Australia and England, as was proven at the T20 World Cup final last year. That teams that finish third and fourth on the table can also punch above their weight in the knockouts, that India and South Africa aren't going to get weighed down by the pressure of the occasion, and that they can continue to spur a revolution.

South Africa will be tasked with the challenge of not only playing against the 30,000-plus crowd, but also adapting to the conditions in Navi Mumbai, where they haven't had a game yet this World Cup. India, on the other hand, will turn up there for their fourth in a row and are yet to be beaten there. South Africa will, however, come into the game more time to wipe their tears of joy, whereas India have a shorter turnaround to calm themselves after a spell-binding show against Australia.

The last time a women's World Cup was staged in India, the marquee event was being relegated to smaller grounds for men's domestic cricket, prize money was hardly comparable with that in the men's game, and bringing in crowds was a task. If the Lord's final was the first major leg up for the game in 2017 and the MCG took things to a different level in 2000, Navi Mumbai could be the latest in the sequence to power it to greater heights in 2025, with a fresh script waiting to be written on Sunday.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)