Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 Semi-Final 1: It was a memorable night for South Africa Women, as they etched their name in the history books by becoming the first side to inflict a defeat on Australia Women in their last 16 games at the Women’s T20 World Cups.
The fixture witnessed a number of records rewritten or broken. Let’s have a look at some of them:
1. Fastest to 3000 runs in Women’s T20I (in terms of innings):
- 100: by Beth Mooney (Australia)
- 103: by Stafanie Taylor (West Indies)
- 105: by Suzie Bates (New Zealand)
- 107: by Meg Lanning (Australia)
2. Nonkululeko Mlaba becomes the first-ever South Africa Women bowler to hit double digits for number of wickets at a single Women’s T20 World Cup.
3. Highest Individual Score For South Africa Women At Women’s T20 World Cups:
- 101 by Lizelle Lee vs Thailand Women in Canberra, 2020
- 90* by Dane Van Niekerk vs Pakistan Women in Sylhet, 2014
- 74* by Anneke Bosch vs Australia Women in Dubai, 2024
4. South Africa Women’s chase of 135 is now their highest-ever successful chase at Women’s T20 World Cups.
5. Both, Beth Mooney and Laura Woolvardt have now registered 4th consecutive 40+ score in knockout games at Women’s T20 World Cups (most in the history).
Here’s What Both Captains Said During Post-Match Presentation Ceremony
Tahlia McGrath (Australia Women Captain):
“It’s a pretty tough pill to swallow. It was a shock tonight. You cannot perform like this in such tournaments. But credit to South Africa for the way they played. This World Cup was in our minds for a long time. We had prepared well. We did well in the off-season camp. We left no stone unturned. This is a shock. We found it quite tricky and South Africa bowled well. They took pace off. At the halfway mark, we thought 140-150 would be par. But they batted really well.”
“We were trying to keep it really simple on that wicket. We didn’t execute it and got punished. We kept saying couple of wickets and couple of wickets and the momentum will shift to our side. But it wasn’t to be. Schutt has been huge for us this tournament. She picks wickets for us. Also, there are a couple of young girls coming up. We have got a really big summer to finish first. Ther always something on the calendar.”
Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa Women Captain):
“Yeah, it’s right up there, this is one of the best wins of my cricketing career for sure. Couple of other girls said it as well. It was a phenomenal batting performance from Anneke Bosch and yeah, really happy. Yeah, it has been a really good year for us, as a collective group we have always done well but glad that we got over the line. Maybe we analyzed a bit more than other teams on their weakness and really happy with the win.”
“Some of our plans we made for today, I think our bowlers were simply exceptional. Well in the run chase, we did not start well in the first couple of overs but I had a chat with Tazmin and we decided to put the foot down and accelerate. Then Anneke played her role brilliantly as well.”
