New Zealand W Win 2024 T20 World Cup Final: The New Zealand women’s team has defeated South Africa in the final of the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup to lift the title for the first time in their history. The Kiwis won the match fairly comfortably by 32 runs.
Even before the start of the match, we knew that we would be getting a new T20 World Champion, as neither of these teams had won the competition before. Australia has won this tournament a whopping six times, England has won it once, and so have the West Indies.
The New Zealand women kicked off their tournament with a massive win over India in the group stage before losing to the defending champions, Australia. Wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan took them to the semifinals, where they defeated the West Indies by eight runs.
South Africa’s journey to the final saw them defeat the West Indies to kick off the tournament before losing to England. They then defeated Scotland and Bangladesh before shocking the world and defeating defending champions Australia in the semis.
NZ W vs SA W: New Zealand W Win 2024 T20 World Cup Final
Returning to the final, it was being played in the Dubai International Stadium and saw the South Africa women win the toss and choose to bowl first. This seemed like the correct decision when opener Georgia Plimmer was dismissed in the second over.
Opener Suzie Bates and all-rounder Amelia Kerr then took the New Zealand women out of the powerplay with a healthy run rate before Bates was bowled by in-form bowler Nonkululeko Mlaba for 31-ball-32. From this point on, Kerr anchored the New Zealand inning.
Captain Sophie Devine failed on the day, only scoring six runs. At this point, the BlackCaps were 70/3 in the 11th over. Brooke Halliday then came in and picked the pace up. Her partnership with Kerr was New Zealand’s best of the match. Their 57-run partnership took the team well into the death overs. Some death over-hitting by Maddy Green took the team past the 150-run mark.
In the end, Amelia Kerr was dismissed as well after scoring 43 off 38, and the Kiwi inning ended at 158/5 in 20 overs.
South Africa got off to a fantastic start to their chase, scoring 40-odd runs in the powerplay without losing any wickets. After crossing the 50-run mark in the seventh over opener, Tazmin Brits was dismissed. But from here, the South Africa women saw their inning collapse.
Captain Laura Wolvaardt was out of the team score of 59, Anneke Bosch on 64, and all-rounder Marizanne Kapp on 77. At 77/4 in the 12th over, the Proteas were in massive trouble. Nadine de Klerk was dismissed in the very next over.
The collapse didn’t stop as South Africa kept losing wickets. This also affected their scoring rate. At the end of 20 overs, they only managed to get 126/9 and thus lost their second Women’s T20 World Cup final in a row after doing so in 2023 as well.
For scoring the most runs in the match and her brilliant spell of 3/24, Amelia Kerr was named the Player of the Match. She also scored 135 runs in the tournament and was its highest wicket-taker with 15 scalps. All this means that Kerr was also named the Player of the Tournament.
As stated above, this is New Zealand women’s first T20 World Cup win. However, unlike the men, they have won the ODI World Cup before, back in 2000.
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