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| e South Africa's Tryon helps her team to victory over New Zealand in the group stage of the 2023 Women's T20 World Cup, February 13, 2023 [Ashley Voltman/Gallo Images] |
Australia's dominance over the years, winning six of the previous eight tournaments, has limited chances for anyone else. Only England in 2009 and West Indies in 2016 saw them lose the inaugural tournament. The Australians have also appeared in seven out of eight finals – not this time after South Africa's dominant semi-final win on Thursday.
It promises to be a fitting finale for a competition that has produced some great - and some mediocre - cricket since switching to the UAE at short notice following political unrest in Bangladesh.
Besides bringing renewed interest in the women's game, Sunday's final will also feature two teams that have played the boldest and most daring cricket during the competition. Unlike the others, they too held on to their catches, although the White Ferns made life more awkward by dropping Diandra Dottin twice in their semi-final against the West Indies. Many teams are not spared from this.
After making just 128-9, which seemed 10 to 15 runs short even on a slow Sharjah pitch, the Kiwis defended the total brilliantly against a batting line-up that had made England uncomfortable in all their winning matches. Amelia Kerr, the tournament's top wicket-taker with 12 wickets, and Eden Carson bowled brilliantly, leaving captain Sophie Devine looking optimistic heading into the final. “We are really excited about the final. We have nothing to lose and it's a great place to be,” said Devine who was in the team that lost by three runs to Australia in the 2010 final, the last of New Zealand's two previous finals. "We're going to win this thing now."
However, he is more than aware of the dangers of a South African side that lost to Australia by 19 runs in the final in Cape Town last year. The Proteas also bowled out the White Ferns by 67 runs in that edition to win their group-stage encounter by 65 runs.
"They are an incredible team," said Devine, of captain Laura Olvard, evergreen all-rounder Marijan Kapp and number three batsman Anneke Bosch, whose stunning unbeaten 74 gave South Africa their eight-wicket victory over the Australians on Thursday. Laura led them from the front in the semi-final, she said, one of the best players in the World Cup (and) Bosh was brilliant against Australia but we have to focus on ourselves and hope the cricketing gods are on our side.
The South Africans have also grown at the forefront of the batting in the last 12 months with this trio of players while second-highest wicket-taker with 10, Nonkululeko Mlaba, in particular leading the bowling attack with strong support from Cup and Ayabonga. . "I'm incredibly proud of everyone and the team and the way we've come through this whole World Cup and the way we've played," Bosch said after his match-winning performance. I think we kind of said that we haven't played our best game yet and probably haven't yet. But hopefully we leave it now for the final."
///Aource Aljazeera ///
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