Finally, New Zealand’s women are the T20 World Champions, while South Africa’s dreams are shattered once again. This time, New Zealand isn’t returning home with disappointment after the final. Instead, the New Zealand women are bringing home the T20 World Cup trophy. In Dubai today, they defeated South Africa by 32 runs in the final to become T20 World Cup champions for the first time.
In 2009 and 2010, New Zealand reached the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup twice but ended up as runners-up, losing to England and Australia. After 14 years, that team returned to the final and triumphed dominantly.
Meanwhile, South Africa suffered the heartbreak of finishing as runners-up in consecutive Women’s T20 World Cups. Including both men’s and women’s cricket, this marks South Africa’s ‘hat-trick’ of defeats in T20 World Cup finals.
After losing the toss and being sent to bat, New Zealand scored 158 runs for 5 wickets. In reply, South Africa managed 126 runs for 9 wickets. The key player in New Zealand’s victory today was Amelia Kerr. She top-scored with 43 runs off 38 balls and later took 3 wickets with her leg-spin. Conceding just 24 runs in 4 overs, Amelia Kerr was named the player of the match. With 135 runs and 15 wickets in the tournament, she was also named the player of the tournament. New Zealand pacer Rosemary Mair also took 3 wickets, conceding 25 runs in 4 overs.
South Africa got off to a great start in their run chase. Captain Laura Wolvaardt, along with Tazmin Brits, put up 51 runs in the opening partnership within 6.4 overs. However, after Brits departed for 17 runs off 18 balls, the team lost their way. Amelia Kerr claimed her first wicket by dismissing Wolvaardt, who scored 33 off 27 balls. From there, South Africa lost wickets at regular intervals and couldn’t keep up with the required run rate.
In New Zealand’s innings, apart from Kerr, Brooke Halliday (38 off 28 balls) and Suzie Bates (32 off 31 balls) also made significant contributions. Bates had also played in the 2009 and 2010 finals. New Zealand’s World Cup-winning captain Sophie Devine was part of the 2009 team, although she didn’t play in the final.
Now, Bates and Devine are returning home with the World Cup trophy in the twilight of their careers.
