New Delhi: A new champion was confirmed for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, and it was New Zealand women’s team to take the honours home following their clinical performance displayed at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
The White Ferns held South Africa women at 126 for 9 in a task of defending 158 runs, which was the second highest total posted by a team in the Women’s T20 World Cup final. This was a long due for some of the veteran players of the team such as opener Suzie Bates, pacer Lea Tahuhu and most importantly captain Sophie Devine, who has decided to relinquish the leadership duties post the tournament.
In no experts’ pre-tournament predictions, New Zealand was the team that would qualify for the knockouts of the showpiece event, forget about lifting the silverware. It wasn’t strange because they lost 10 games in a row in the build up of the World T20.
They made their foot in the tournament, dismantling India in the World Cup opener in Dubai, and then responded to each challenge that come through their way. Be it defending 110 runs in the final group stage against Pakistan to leapfrog both Pakistan and India in the Group A to enter the semifinals. They held their nerves against 2016 champions West Indies to make it to the finals after 14 years.
On Sunday, New Zealand faced an equally hungry South Africa, who finished runners-up to Australia at home last year. The challenging part here was that South Africa knocked out serial winners Australia from the tournament to make the hype around their caliber.
After being asked to bat first, which they wanted to, New Zealand openers Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer were on the mission to hit the gaps and up the pace of scoring. In the onset of intense batting, Plimmer fell to Ayabonga Khaka after failing to find the power to fetch the desired distance.
That allowed for an entrancing partnership between Bates and Amelia Kerr, the two good friends, though they are at the opposite sides of their careers. Suzie, who became the most capped international player in women’s cricket tonight, carried some valuable energy on her face. She prodded forward, shuffled across the wickets, went inside-out, to toy with the Proteas women fielding, hitting just three boundaries albeit.
An erred in the timing for a paddle sweep against Nonkululeko Mlaba’s arm ball led to the rattling of her stumps. From thereof, New Zealand observed a tough moment in brief, a period of 48 balls where no boundary was scored by them, and losing skipper Sophie Devine for a low score (6 off 10 balls) was tormenting to watch.
It was then that Brooke Halliday stepped up to bring life back to an insipid White Ferns innings. The all-rounder was brisk in her hitting and relied more on running between the wickets with Amelia Kerr, who hadn’t scored a boundary after the first ball of her innings. The momentum came back in the 13th and 14th over when Halliday hit Sune Luus for back-to-back boundaries.
This continued in the death overs with Kerr joining the party now. The two added 57 runs before Halliday was dismissed by Chloe Tryon with Anneke Bosch showing no error of room in the field to take a fine catch. Kerr was also run out in the penultimate over for 43, being denied for a fifty at a big stage. Maddy Green hit one big six off Khaka in the final over before plundering two runs to put New Zealand in a commanding position with 158 runs to defend.
South Africa fluffs the chase despite terric start
South Africa openers Laura Wolvaardt and Taznim Brits, just like their counterparts, started with great intent. 47 runs from the powerplay indicated that they will grow with confidence from that stage, but that wasn’t the case. They couldn’t fathom how to carry the momentum, and so was the following batting order able to find the trick. The experience of Marizanne Kapp and Luus didn’t help their cause.
A determined New Zealand had their plans. They executed them well. Broke the opening partnership in the first over after the powerplay. Picked regular wickets from there and ensured no partnership flourished for more than 20 runs, pushing the Proteas to commit errors and throw their wickets. The quandary was visible when Nadine de Klerk was joined by Luus at the crease. Though Luus gave a promising start, the fear of the last recognised pair getting separated didn’t allow them to play with a free will.
Rosemary Mair (3 for 25) and Amelia Kerr (3 for 26) once again did the utmost damage with the ball, sharing six wickets between them, to restrict South Africa at 126 for 9.
