Australia stand-in captain Tahlia McGrath conceded her facet had been outplayed by South Africa after seeing their Ladies’s T20 World Cup title defence ended with a heavy eight-wicket loss in Dubai.
In a repeat of final yr’s closing, gained by Australia to safe their third consecutive T20 World Cup victory and seventh total, South Africa made amends to ease to a dominant win with practically three overs to spare.
South Africa restricted Australia to 134-5 after profitable the toss and electing to discipline first, earlier than Anneke Bosch smashed an excellent unbeaten 74 to information the Proteas to their victory goal and arrange a showdown towards both West Indies or New Zealand in Sunday’s closing.
“It [losing] is going to be pretty hard to take,” stated McGrath, captaining Australia once more with Alyssa Healy out injured. “We just didn’t really show up and you can’t afford to do that in tournaments like this.
“Full credit score to South Africa, they outplayed us and we weren’t at our greatest.”
Australia, who’ve featured within the final seven Ladies’s T20 World Cup finals, noticed opener Grace Harris (three) and Georgia Wareham (5) each fall inside the primary three overs earlier than Beth Mooney (44) – who grew to become the quickest participant to achieve 3,000 runs in girls’s T20Is – and McGrath (27) steadied the innings with a 50-run partnership.
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South Africa ran out Beth Mooney after coming near getting her bat again in earlier than it hit the wickets
Mooney was run out within the seventeenth over after a direct hit from Marizanne Kapp’s throw on the striker’s finish, whereas Phoebe Litchfield’s unbeaten 16 and Ellyse Perry’s quickfire 31 added late runs in Australia’s innings.
In reply, Tazmin Brits fell for 15 within the powerplay however Bosch and Proteas captain Laura Wolvaardt – who chalked up a swift 42 – took the sport from Australia with their good second-wicket partnership.
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South Africa beat defending champions Australia by eight wickets to advance to the ultimate the place they’ll face both West Indies or New Zealand
“We found it quite tricky and South Africa bowled really well,” McGrath added. “They just held stump line, took the pace off nicely and made it hard for us to take risks.
“On the midway mark we thought that possibly 140-150 was par and fell brief, then South Africa made it seem like a completely totally different wicket and batted rather well.
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South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt hit an enormous six as her facet continued their robust batting efficiency towards Australia
“We mis-executed a little bit, were just off our best and got punished. We tried to wrestle the momentum back but unfortunately couldn’t do that.
“We have had this World Cup in our minds for a really very long time now. We labored actually laborious over the low season to high-quality tune some issues, we had been rather well prepped coming into right here. It felt like we left no stone unturned however simply did not present up.”
Bosch: We knew we may do it!
South Africa had misplaced all seven earlier conferences in World Cups, together with a 19-run defeat within the 2023 closing, with player-of-the-match Bosch – who scored 74 from simply 48 deliveries – proud to see that run ended.
“It was quite tough out there but I’m really glad we could get over the line and that I could finally contribute some runs,” Bosch stated in her post-match presentation.
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Response from Australia skipper Tahlia McGrath and South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt following the latter’s victory within the T20 World Cup semi-final
“We knew we were capable of it [winning] and we had a pretty good tournament so far, coming into this game, and were quite confident.
“I believe our batters have been unbelievable for us this match and our bowlers have been actually good. To limit Australia to underneath 140 was rather well accomplished by our bowlers.”
South Africa captain Wolvaardt added: “This is without doubt one of the finest wins of my cricketing profession for positive. A few the opposite ladies have stated it as properly – it was such a tremendous chase.
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South Africa claimed two early catches towards Australia within the Ladies’s T20 World Cup semi-final
“It has been a good year for us and a real collective group effort. I felt like our bowlers did excellently to restrict them.”
What’s subsequent?
West Indies play New Zealand within the second semi-final on Friday, in Sharjah, with protection starting at 2.30pm on Sky Sports activities Cricket and Sky Sports activities Important Occasion forward of the primary ball at 3pm.
Dubai will then stage the ultimate on Sunday, with the sport beginning at 3pm. Construct-up begins at 2.30pm on Sky Sports activities Cricket.
