NEWS
Follow UsAnneke Bosch, the name would ring loud and clear into the Aussie ears for days to come and even more if South Africa win the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, of which they made the final on October 17 (Thursday) by beating six-time champions Australia in the semi-final.
Tahlia McGrath, the stand-in skipper for the Aussies who were missing their regular captain Alyssa Healthy due to injury, said that this loss was going to be a bitter pill to swallow, especially after the kind of effort her team had put in coming into this tournament.
“It's going to be pretty hard to take. We just didn't show up tonight. 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 hard over the off-season, fine-tuning some things. We were prepped for coming here. Felt like we left no stone unturned,” she said during the post-match presentation ceremony.
Explaining why her team were unable to get past 140-mark with the bat, McGrath said, “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 different wicket.”
Laura Wolvaardt, who scored a crucial 42 off 37 balls and more importantly paired up with Anneke Bosch to bring up a match-winning 96-run stand, said that it was one of the best wins of her cricketing career.
It is one of the best wins of my cricketing career for sure. Anneke batted superbly. It has been a good year for us, a really collective group effort. I'm glad some of the plans worked and I thought the bowlers bowled excellently to restrict them,” said the South African captain.
The team from the rainbow nation exacted their revenge from the last T20 World Cup where they lost to Australia in the final and Bosch was one of the main reasons. However, the woman of the hour was more than relaxed and glad that her team got past the line.
“It was tough out there, glad we got past the line. I'm happy to have contributed some runs,” Bosch said before adding, “We knew we were capable, and had a pretty good tournament coming into the game. The bowlers have been superb right through the tournament and to restrict them for under 140 tonight was outstanding.”
South Africa will now await the winners of the second semi-final between New Zealand and West Indies to know about their opponents for a second consecutive T20 World Cup final.
If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out on our content — big time. Download the App here.
