A glorious day for South African cricket and women's cricket in particular as they have knocked the great Australian side out of this World Cup. Just one more game awaits them and their tryst with destiny. We saw the men's side fall short in the final against India, will this women's side go one better? We will have to wait and watch. The second semi-final is between New Zealand and West Indies and we will be there nice and early to bring you all the action. On that note we sign off from here. Do join us tomorrow for semi-final two. Until then take care, be well and sleep tight. Bye.
Laura Wolvaardt | South Africa Women captain: [on where does this win rank in her career] I think it is right up there, it is one of the best wins of my cricketing career for sure. Couple of other girls said it as well. Such an amazing chase, Anneke batted superbly. It has been a good year for us, really collective group effort, we maybe 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. One of the best of her career and what a time to bring it up. [on whom she prefers in the final, West Indies or New Zealand] I really don't know, both sides are destructive on their day, West Indies look like favorites right now but you can't discount Amelia Kerr and co. [on the crowd support] Nice crowd and lots of South Africans in there.
Tahlia McGrath | Australia Women captain: 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. We really were prepped coming into here. Felt like we left no stone unturned. Just didn't show up on the night. [on their batting innings] We found it quite tricky, South Africa bowled quite well, took the pace off and they made it tough for us to take risks, at the halfway stage, felt 140-150 was par but South Africa batted so well and made it look like it was a totally different wicket. [on their bowling plans] We were trying to keep it really simple on that wicket and we couldn't execute and got punished, we kept saying a couple of overs and a couple of wickets, so that we could wrestle the momentum back but we could not do it. Schutt has been huge for us this tournament, she leads from the front, takes poles for fun and the youngsters, Phoebs and Bells are coming through, so we have a really good future. We have got a really big summer to finish first. There is always something next on the calendar.
Australia Women’s defeats in Women’s T20 WC knockouts By 8 wickets vs ENG-W, The Oval, 2009 SF By 8 wickets vs WI-W, Kolkata, 2016 Final By 8 wickets vs SA-W, Dubai, 2024 SF
Australia Women’s streak of 15 consecutive wins in the Women’s T20 World Cup has been broken, no other team has won more than seven back-to-back games in the competition’s history.
Australia’s last defeat in Women’s T20Is was also against South Africa - in Canberra in January; they’d won 11 straight games thereafter.
Consecutive 40-plus scores in Women’s T20 WC knockouts 4* - Laura Wolvaardt (2020-2024) 4* - Beth Mooney (2020-2024) 3 - Meg Lanning (2014-2016)
Highest targets successfully chased by SA-W in Women’s T20 WC 135 vs AUS-W, Dubai, 2024 124 vs ENG-W, Perth, 2020 119 vs WI-W, Dubai, 2024 115 vs NZ-W, Sylhet, 2014 114 vs BAN-W, Cape Town, 2023
Highest partnerships vs AUS-W in Women’s T20 WC 122* - Beth Morgan & Claire Taylor (ENG-W), The Oval, 2009 120 - Hayley Matthews & Stefanie Taylor (WI-W), Kolkata, 2016 118* - Suzie Bates & Aimee Watkins (NZ-W), Tanton, 2009 96 - Laura Wolvaardt & Anneke Bosch (SA-W), Dubai, 2024 *All came in successful run-chases
Highest individual scores for SA-W in Women’s T20 WC 101 - Lizelle Lee vs THA-W, Canberra, 2020 90* - Dane van Niekerk vs PAK-W, Sylhet, 2014 74* - Anneke Bosch vs AUS-W, Dubai, 2024 SF 68 - Tazmin Brits vs ENG-W, Cape Town, 2023 SF 67* - Lizelle Lee vs PAK-W, Sylhet, 2014
Bosch’s 74* is also the highest individual score at the Women’s T20 WC 2024 so far.
Anneke Bosch | Player of the Match - My heart is racing a lot, it was tough out there, glad we got past the line. I'm happy to have contributed some runs. Just keep scoring those runs, play with the conditions around and stick to what you do best (on the chat with Wolvaardt). His speeches before the game helps us focus on the game (On Paul Adams, the coach). It means a lot,can't really describe, we knew we were capable, had a pretty good tournament coming into the game. Our bats, Taz (Brits) and Laura (Wolvaardt) have been incredible, the bowlers have been superb right through the tournament and to restrict them for under 140 tonight was outstanding. Thanks to all the support from our fans, we had plenty of them last time around (when they hosted the tournament in 2023), but they've stood by us and keep supporting us going ahead to the final.
20:49 Local Time, 16:49 GMT, 22:19 IST:This is a red-letter day in Women's cricket annals. Consider this: Since 2009, there have been 7 T20 World Cups and Australia has won 6 of them and lost in the final in the other. So this achievement from South Africa is something that has to be written in bold and capital letters.
17.2
Schutt to Bosch, FOUR, to deep square leg
17.1
Schutt to Bosch, no run, short of length just outside off, cut to point
Megan Schutt [3.0-0-21-0] is back into the attack
16.6
Sutherland to Bosch, 1 run, to cover
16.5
Sutherland to Bosch, no run
16.4
Sutherland to Chloe Tryon, 1 run, the slower-ball on a length outside off, slogged to deep mid-wicket
Australia Women
South Africa Women
