South Africa exacted revenge against Australia for the loss suffered in the previous Women’s T20 World Cup. Laura Wolvaardt and her team beat defending champions Australia on Thursday to enter their 2nd successive final. They will now await the winner of West Indies and New Zealand for the massive game on Sunday.
It was the South Africans who won the toss and chose to bowl first. Alyssa Healy was still missing for Australia who had been unbeaten in their group phase stages. In the end, Proteas won the game by 8 wickets with 16 balls to play.
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Put into bat, Australia lost Grace Harris early for 5 when she was dismissed by Ayabonga Khaka. It was soon 18 for 2 in the 3rd over when Georgia Wareham was out for 5 off 9 balls with 1 four. Marizanne Kapp got the key wicket to help the Proteas team assert control early in the game.
South Africa coasts home to easy win and enter the final
After losing two early wickets, Australia came back with Beth Mooney and Tahlia McGrath adding 50 runs for the 3rd wicket. Skipper McGrath scored 27 runs from 33 balls with 3 sweetly timed fours. That stand was broken in the 13th over when Mbala had McGrath caught by Deckersen.
Ellyse Perry scored 31 off 23 balls with 2 fours before becoming Khaka’s 2nd wicket. The best batter for Australia was Beth Mooney scored 44 off 42 balls with 2 fours. In the end, the defending champions scored 134/5 from their 20 overs.
South Africa lost opener Tazmin Brits early for 15 runs to Annabel Sutherland. Skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Anneke Bosch added 96 runs for the 2nd wicket in 65 balls. That stand knocked out Australia as Bosch hit the winning runs. The South African batter hit 4 runs off Megan Schutt to stay not out on 74 off 48 balls with 8 fours and a six.
Australian skipper McGrath said, “It's going to be pretty hard to take. We just didn't really show up tonight. You can't afford to do that in tournaments like this. Full credit to South Africa, they outplayed us tonight. We have had this World Cup in our minds for a very long time now. We worked really hard over the off-season, fine-tuning some things.”
Laura Wolvaardt said, “Such an amazing chase, Anneke batted superbly. It has been a good year for us, really a collective group effort, we may be analysed a bit more about the other teams, glad some of the plans worked and I thought the bowlers bowled excellently to restrict them. We did not have the best two overs at the start of the game, and Taz and I had a chat and we needed to put the foot down and Anneke played her role brilliantly as well, gave us the kick.”
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