It was all so poetic. Deepti Sharma, the soon-to-be MVP of 2025 World Cup, delivered the ball - ironically, an absolute freebie of a full toss - that sealed India's destiny. Fittingly the ball, as it left Nadine de Klerk's bat, arced towards Harmanpreet Kaur - the soon-to-be first-ever World Cup-winning India women's captain - who held onto the catch that ended five decades of longing.

And it was just as poetic that Arundhati Reddy, who by the quirk of selections never got a game throughout the campaign, became the first to hear the words that India were world champions now.

"Aru, hum jeet gaye. HUM JEET GAYE," [Aru, we won. WE'VE WON]," an ecstatic Harmanpreet screamed into Arundhati's ears, embracing the substitute who lifted her jubilant Indian captain high in the air moments after that catch nestled safely in her hands. Amidst a deafening roar that marked the end of an aching wait, it was Arundhati who first heard history being spoken aloud.

Words fail her, even a week later. "It all just happened so fast," Arundhati tells Cricbuzz from Hyderabad. "I saw Harry di run towards me and I had to stop her. When I picked her up, she just said, 'Aru, we won. We've won.'

"That was a very special moment for me [to be a small part of Harmanpreet's joy]. For her, someone who's been around for so long in Indian cricket, it was just written in the stars - the ball had to come to her and she had to take that final catch. At that point of time, I was elated, just looking at her and her happiness. Then obviously, our entire team joined in. It was just surreal."

That feeling is yet to sink in. "It felt great finally lifting that trophy. The celebrations went on till morning - we partied all night, we saw the sunrise. Nobody slept the entire night because it was all very emotional for us. Everyone in this team had dreamt of winning the World Cup for India. For it to be happening in India, in Mumbai - where a lot of us love playing, simply for the support and love we get here.

"You could just sense it in the morning of the game itself. When we were getting in the team bus, it was raining heavily in Navi Mumbai, and yet we saw people getting drenched in the rain just still braving it all - cheering and waving. It was just written for us to happen that way."

For the 10-year-old Arundhati within her, a self-confessed cricket nerd that she was quietly turning into, it was the culmination of a childhood wish. Back then, she had fallen in love with the game watching India lift the 2007 Men's T20 World Cup, and in her young mind, the dream was not to play for India but to 'one day similarly bring a World Cup trophy home'. She didn't know yet the women played too.

A few years down the line, as she began honing her skills at an academy, she wuld spend hours watching Mithali Raj - a local legend - bat in the same nets every Sunday. To her, it was like watching a cricket textbook come alive. Fittingly, at the DY Patil, in India's victory lap, seeing Raj finally lift that trophy after leading India in two unsuccessful attempts before her retirement felt like a full-circle for Arundhati - a moment that tied her own journey back to its very beginning.

"That victory lap was such a beautiful memory. We got the opportunity to give the cup to Mithali di and Jhulan di, and just to see their emotions flow. For me, growing up, those chats with Mithali di was my first interaction with someone playing at the highest level that motivated me further [to represent the country]. Having seen her that closely, having played with her at Railways, at India - it was all very, very emotional for me as well just to watch her lift the cup because there were tears in her eyes and just felt very personal, to be honest.

"Even Jhulan di - you've all seen the visuals on TV of her bursting into tears. This World Cup is as much theirs as it is ours, honestly. They've done so much for women's cricket, been around for so long, inspired many generations. It was just meant even for them to be present that day on the ground. It just had to happen that way. It was all written in the stars.

"To see the emotions of everyone who'd been around right from the time when women's cricket wasn't even so mainstream as well, to see people shed those happy tears and get emotional, it felt really special [to give them this memory]. For me actually, that's what sums up the World Cup, because that is what you play for. It was a day that everybody has waited so long for."

Everything about that night felt like "the biggest win" - not least having her mother there to finally break a three-year-long finals jinx. After three WPL campaigns, where Arundhati represented the perennial runners-up Delhi Capitals, her mother was the first among all parents to sneak onto the ground after the momentous win. In their long embrace, she shed "a lot of happy tears" for her daughter - now a world champion.

For Arundhati, even the game that led up to that night had been an emotional whirlwind of its own. To see her closest friend, Jemimah Rodrigues, headline a spectacular triumph over the defending chamoions - while carrying the weight of her own mental health battles - was a core memory.

"Usually, I am someone who is calm under such situations but that game... I remember when Alyssa Healy dropped Jemi, I turned to Harleen [Deol] in the dugout, and said, 'I don't have the mental capacity any more to watch this game'."

The sense of deja vu had crept in even in the dugout at Harmanpreet's dismissal - a point that had consistently proved to be India's undoing in the previous ICC knockouts. The Rodrigues reprieve came soon after, followed by the dismissals of Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh just as a partnership seemed to be settling in.

"A lot of us were very overwhelmed by what happened in the Australia game. It was a lot of emotions. It was really tense [in the dugout], because a lot of times we've come so close to Australia. I just kept praying to God, saying something like 'all these years we've lost, but maybe God it's high that we win now and that you even the scales'. I mean, all I could do was just pray at that point of time. And even the people who were sitting out that day, all four of us, we were like, no matter what happens, we're continuously going to pray and pray," Arundhati recalls of the atmosphere of the dugout.

By the time the winning runs seemed imminent, Arundhati was already at the boundary line. She was the fastest among her teammates to sprint to Rodrigues, firmly believing that the prophecy she had quietly held onto all along was finally unfolding.

"It's kind of funny because before the start of the tournament, I just told her that, 'Jemi, I have this feeling that this is going to be your best tournament yet'. She went like, 'yeah, I wish' but then her tournament didn't start off that well. She got a couple of ducks, couple of starts [she couldn't convert; and and then got dropped].

"Even then I had this inkling. I told her, 'there's still time, and I still get this feeling that something big is due from you'. She just laughed it off then. She looked at me as if I'm mad or someone crazy. I just kept telling her that it just feels like a set-up, like God is doing this to ultimately lift you up in a very big way. I can't explain it, but there was this constant feeling deep down that that something big is going to happen from her.

"That night, just for her to have been there when the winning runs were hit, it meant a lot. I don't show too many emotions on the field - I've never been that person. But that day, it was just a very emotional for me because I've seen her very closely. She's like family - we've both seen each other's ups and downs.

"For her to go there and do what she did at that stage, on the day when it mattered the most, in her hometown, in front of tat big a crowd - it was very very emotional, very overwhelming for me as well. Again, for her as well, it was all written.

"When she hugged me, we both got emotional. She just said 'thanks for believing in me when I didn't myself'. I'm just really glad that it happened and it happened the way it did."

In that moment, perhaps, her own frustrations faded into the background. There's no metric yet which could quantify her commitment that was felt most in the unglamorous, day-to-day tasks she carried out off-camera. The parallels to Sunil Valson are not lost on her - perhaps even reminded of far too often for her liking. Yet, Arundhati wears the badge of "being the constant 12th" with pride, knowing that she's given her all to the behind-the-scenes role.

Arundhati was a constant presence in the nets, tirelessly bowling to her teammates even during most of the optional training sessions. She was the carrier of crucial messages, not just drinks, from the dugout to the playing XI, and occasionally also the substitute fielder - like when Pratika Rawal suffered a freak on-field injury, or in that eventful final moments that are now etched in history.

In this day and age of social media, that contribution was duly acknowledged - even saluted - by Smriti Mandhana, who called Arundhati the emotional backbone of the team. Rodrigues was the most eloquent in shedding more light on that, crediting Arundhati for helping her navigate her emotions during what was an anxiety-ridden campaign for the batter.

The India allrounder recalls a chat with team's S&C coach, AI Harrsha, which gave her perspective to approach the thankless yet essential tasks with clarity and purpose.

"Obviously, it's never nice to not play, but the the way I see it is just that... I need to be a good teammate and be there for people around me. Even if I'm not playing, I want to contribute in whatever way possible just to be there for the team. I went into every practice session trying to prepare as if I'm going to play the next game. You just don't know from where the opportunity might come, and I just wanted to be ready for that, instead of being in a headspace of, 'oh, what do I do now?'. I just wanted to tick all the boxes and do what I have to do; and then whatever happens, happens. That has always been my mindset.

"I told myself that my preparation shouldn't stop. How I feel or what I'm feeling shouldn't stop the way I prepare or what I want to achieve in my life. I still kept doing all the routines that I would do normally. I have seen my share of ups and downs in life and in cricket. So I've come to a stage in my career where I tell myself that what I have to do, I have to do no matter what. And the rest is on to God and it's for Him to take care of it.

"In Bhagavad Gita, it says, 'karam karte jao, phal ki iccha mat karo', and that's something I truly live by and I try to follow it as much as I can.

"I'm not saying there weren't days where I [felt the pinch]. Obviously, you want to be a part of playing XI. But, once I step onto the ground, it's still my duty to be a good teammate. Because, to me, the energy that you carry in a dressing room also matters a lot. I didn't want [my disappointment] to rub off on anybody; I didn't want to be negative around the group. That's not how I play my cricket.

"Even when you the 12th, you want to pass on the message as quickly as possible and as accurately as possible. There are a lot of things that from the outside you observe and you want to give those inputs, and that's equal duty.

"As the 12th, I've always wanted to create something useful for the team. Even on that day against Bangladesh, just before that catch, funnily, I was thinking about, 'okay, I want to take a blinder today'. And the very next ball came to me. It was nice, actually, to contribute in whatever small way that I contributed, standing in for Pratika.

"In my head, I know my time will come. And I'm not too worried about it. So for me, till the time my time comes and I have to clap for somebody else, I'm okay to do it," she says.

"There was a conversation I had with Harsha, about how you still have to do what you've got to do. Whether things are going well, not going well, it doesn't matter what's happening in and around, you still have to do what you have to do.

"He mentioned how Arshdeep [Singh, India men's cricketer] has great work ethics. I asked him, 'what makes you say that?' Because everybody at that level comes with the right work ethics. And everybody is, once you're playing for India, you're doing something right. That is why you're there. But then he told me that Arshdeep does what he has to do even on the days when he's not feeling great, even on days when he's not making the XI. That's something that stuck with me. It just helped me get in a good headspace.

"In the end, the highlight was, obviously, just winning the World Cup and being a part of that squad. I mean, you dream about days like these, right? And for it to just have unfolded the way that it did... I'm just thankful for everything. I'm still grateful for whatever has happened, the way it has happened, and the many learnings I've got. After all, nothing can beat the fact that we are World Cup champions."