South Africa vs New Zealand Live Score Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 final
South Africa vs New Zealand Live Score Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 final: New Zealand have set a target of 159 runs against South Africa in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 final, in Dubai on Sunday. The match began with SA captain Laura Wolvaardt winning the toss and opting to field. South Africa got a strong start via opener Suzie Bates. Bates eventually lost her wicket to Nonkululeko Mlaba, departing for 32 off 31 balls. Later, Amelia Kerr (43) and Brooke Halliday (38) built a crucial partnership, which was key in taking New Zealand to 158/5 in 20 overs. …Read More
It is a Women’s T20 World Cup which not too many expected. The stories of the tournament have been somewhat similar for South Africa and New Zealand. Nobody had too much of their money on either the Proteas or the White Ferns making the finals in the UAE, much less both. But two weeks and a handful of big upsets later, the two teams will now fight it out to try and claim their first ever T20 World Cup trophy.
South Africa were runners-up last year when they hosted the tournament at home, and have made it back-to-back appearances in the final now. On that occasion, they lost in the finals to the behemoth Australians, who have often looked unbeatable in women’s cricket. From their perspective, those demons were vanquished as South Africa completely dominated Australia in the semifinals on this occasion to beat their greatest threat and give themselves another shot at gold.
This huge victory followed a group stage where they made sure they got the business done, finishing in second place on net run-rate, narrowly ahead of England despite falling to them in a narrow loss. The key to success for South Africa has been their top order, with Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits creating a formidable opening partnership and sitting in the top two for all run-scorers in the tournament. On the bowling end, Nonkululeko Mbala has been the star, with 10 wickets in 5 matches.
The Kiwis, meanwhile, got their tournament off to a massive start by beating India. Although they were hammered by Australia in the group stages, they did what they had to in order to qualify. Amelia Kerr has been the main player for them, taking 12 wickets in these five matches and sitting on top of the leading wicket-takers list. Their semifinal against West Indies saw them pull off a narrow win by eight runs, but they made sure they kept their noses ahead in that match throughout. The bowling pulled through to keep a dangerous Windies lineup quiet, helping the Kiwis defend a fairly small total.
The Kiwis will want to contain and dismiss the top-quality openers that South Africa possess, and expose a fairly untested middle order. They have the bowling quality capable of keeping South Africa under tabs, not unlike what they did against India in their opener. However, following that performance against India, the batting has underperformed, which is a concern that the Kiwis will need to rectify.
For South Africa, getting runs on the board at a quick pace has been the name of the game as they have qualified for the finals. They will continue to want Wolvaardt and Brits to perform, but the excellent and match-winning innings played by Anneke Bosch against Australia will give plenty of confidence to the team. Their batting firepower is what will bring about the results in this final, and they likely enter with the boost of being slight favourites after their terrific performances in that department.
For South Africa, it is an opportunity to improve one step further on their performance at home last year, and for New Zealand, it is the typical chance to punch above their weight and surprise the world. It is all to play for in Dubai.
