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For added context, New Zealand had come into the tournament on a streak of 10 T20I losses, the longest losing streak any team has turned around to win a cricket World Cup
Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: Srinidhi Ramanujam
That’s it from us today. Hope you all enjoyed our coverage. Do watch out this space for more post-match content from our writers in Dubai. For now, I am signing off on behalf of Sudarshanan and Venkat Raghav. Good night and take care!
Devine lifts the trophy with her team-mates. Tears of joy. Relief in their smiles. Champagne all over their jerseys in celebration. The support staff join the team as they pose with the T20 trophy. In the middle of the group are Tahuhu, Bates and Devine – three pillars of New Zealand women’s cricket. It’s 7am in New Zealand and the White Ferns have given the country of 5.3 million a reason to be proud of and hope this triumph inspire the generations to come.
Sophie Devine, New Zealand captain: “Once I get my hands on that trophy, we will get away. I started to dream last night about what it feels to hold the trophy with this team, didn’t want to get to ahead of us. This group, Suze and Lea and for New Zealand cricket, it has been a long time. The great thing about this group is we know what we have been trying to achieve in the last 15, 18, 24 months. We kept taking steps in right directions, you want momentum and we came to the World Cup on the back of 10 successive losses. But everyone starts on zero. Speaks to the volume of who Suze is as a player. Most capped player in history of women’s game, to think she can go out and play with such aggression and fearlessness. To have her in the side, it is just special, to lift it for her. [On Tahuhu] I have spoken about her at length. You want a person like her in the team, she will scrape and fight for you. It is not always about the wickets, but it is about the work that goes behind it and working hard for your mates. [Halliday and Kerr] Outstanding. Brooke was outstanding against West Indies. Spoke about backing our strengths, she backed her strengths, found those pockets, ran hard. Helped us get to a competitive total. [Kerr] We all know she is a once in a generation player. What she was able to do tonight was incredible. Physically to do what she did with the bat, I think she can’t feel her legs. She is not a bad cricketer but the person that she is, the world is her oyster and is great. South Africa were great, the semi-final against Australia was unbelievable.”
Laura Wolvaardt, SA captain: “Focus was just to reset [after semis], not get too ahead of ourselves. We knew that we still had a really quality opponent in New Zealand to go and yeah, just didn’t play our best cricket tonight. They really came out as hard in that powerplay. There was fear and intent early on from them. At first we thought we could score a few wickets here or there, but they just kept going. Yeah, probably let them score a few too many. It put a lot of pressure on us at the back. Lessons? I don’t know. I think we’ll have to have a good reflection on what exactly happened. We’re still a bit fresh right now. But yeah, half way stage, you know, I think we’re still backing ourselves to chase a little bit. It’s going to be a record-run chase, but you got off to an absolute flyer. [ on the start with the bat] definitely thought it was game on after that. But yeah, they really put the squeeze on after that. I think 7-11 was probably not our best phase. But credit to them, they were all pretty well in that phase. [on SA’s future] Very exciting. Obviously, you have some really experienced players like Marizanne Kapp, but you have some awesome youngsters coming through. You have some youngsters on the bench as well that didn’t get an opportunity for the World Cup, but have been very exciting in previous series. So yeah, we’ll just keep building, go back to the throwing board and hopefully have a good next World Cup. Just a really big thank you to our management. I think the work that they put in behind the scenes isn’t always noticed. The hours and hours that they spend getting us ready to play is something that we’re really appreciative of and they don’t get enough recognition for. Also, just to the families that flew out. A lot of families flew out last minute last night. It was a big mission getting visas in the last 48 hours, but most of them managed to be there. Big shout out to ICC for their continued support.”
South Africa come up to the stage and collect their runners-up medals.
Time for presentations…
Amelia Kerr is the Player of the Match and Player of the Tournament: “I’m a little bit speechless and I’m just so stoked to get the win, considering what this team’s been through and yeah, it’s what dreams are made of. I thought the wicket was pretty good but it slowed up a little bit and I thought, that was probably not a bad thing with us bowling second. I kind of thought 140-plus in the finals gets us in the game and the way Brooke came out and hit, it was an outstanding contribution from everyone and a lot of belief to, I guess, finish the job. [On Brooke] Yeah, she took so much pressure off me. I was struggling out there a lot and I was probably finding it a little bit hard to climb the ball and she just came out there and hit two pockets and she did it in the semi-final and to do it again in the final is class so it’s awesome to see. [on cramps] Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. I was cramping up while batting but yeah, afterwards in the field when I threw the ball I got cramped and found myself hiding in the ring at short third but just grateful that we got the job done. The first ball I bowled I cramped up and I thought I’m not going to be able to bowl this fast today but I think the plans I’ve had this tournament and my run-in coming into play, especially here, has helped me have a lot of success as well as the other spin group of our team have been outstanding in the bowling partnership.
“I guess bowling’s what first got me in the White Ferns and it’s something that I’ve always wanted to keep getting better at. So to be able to pick up wickets and have the confidence to step up in big moments but I think I’ve said it all along throughout the last year, it’s the spin group we have, I’ve never enjoyed bowling so much, they make it so much fun and I’m just enjoying myself when I’m out there. It’s always better when you get the big players out. You want to be a big match player and I guess bowling through those middle overs, it’s when the best batters are constructing their innings and if you can make a breakthrough it can push teams back and that’s my job. Wickets come and go and thankfully I’ve come my way this tournament. [on moving between three seniors and youngsters] I absolutely love it, I’ve played international cricket now for a while so I’ve got to share the field and experience playing with three of our greats but then to be a similar age to our young ones, it feels like you can build great connections with them all and that’s what our team has, they’re such special people and I absolutely love playing for the White Ferns and they mean so much to me.”
Suzie Bates: “Just in shock really, like this tournament, just little things have gone our way and we’ve just played with real pride and like, whatever happened today, I was so proud of the group that we’ve won the thing. It’s unbelievable. I think we knew South Africa we were going come hard when they got the opportunity with the bat, so we just wanted to take the game on and not expected us to get this far so we just allowed ourselves to play with freedom and Georgia and I knew it was important we started well, just to get through that power play. She’s been outstanding all tournament, for such a young kid. She’s a world champion at such a young age and she’s batted so well and helped me down the other end, so look, everyone’s contributed, but here in particular with me opening that I couldn’t be prouder of the young girl. [Special moment with Devine] This means everything to us. We’ve played team sport for so long and when you play team sport, you wat to be a world champion and we have fought our way back to the top. We started with two final opportunities, but since then, it’s been pretty rare and she’s been so outstanding leading this team so calm and believing in us. I think we’ll probably have a cuddle for even longer later because there’s been some dark times that only us in that group and in that shed have really been near for when we couldn’t get a win leading into this World Cup. We questioned ourselves as leaders, but been just kept backing up, so it’s really special. [Young players] They’ve been brilliant. Eden Carson, outstanding all tournament. Our spinners, even though Melie’s been around for a while, she’s so young, leading the spin attack with Fran Jonas. I’ll add myself for one sneaking over. Like everyone contributing and it was a real team effort. It just makes you so satisfied as an athlete for it all to come together and this moment is something I’ll never forget.”
Lea Tahuhu: “Absolutely surreal. so so proud of this team. Puts all the hard work into realisation. Unbelievably proud. This team is special.”
Izzy Gaze: “It has not sunk in yet. Incredible moment. [on the DRS call] Just heard it pretty clear, was my judgement, it was a good one. We got so much belief in our team, coming into the tournament not on the best streak. We believed. This is for them [Devine, Bates].”
Rosemary Mair: “Pretty unreal. Coming into the tournament, for the team to bounce back, that’s unbelievable. The batters put on a fantastic total. They got off a good start in powerplay. We just care so much about each other, we have been through lows in the last 18 months but stuck together and got through. [on Devine, Bates and Tahuhu] They are pretty old, (laughs) we learn so much from them.”
9.16pm: New Zealand have done it! They beat South Africa by 32 runs to clinch the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup. Heartbreak for South Africa, yet again. What an incredible moment for the White Ferns. Devine, the captain, is visibly emotional after giving a tight hug to long-time friend and team-mate Bates. Kerr is also in tears. Two finals in a row and South Africa had to settle for the second prize.
New Zealand were not tipped to win this, coming on the back off 10 consecutive losses. But they started their campaign with a bang, thrashing India and carried that momentum forward. Defended a low-score against West Indies in the semi-final. Asked to bat first today, they started the powerplay with a bang. Kerr’s all-round heroics – 43 runs and three wickets with the ball – stood out. Green and Halliday chipped in. Everyone held on to their catches. Mair struck thrice to strangle South Africa who could put only 126 despite a solid opening stand. South Africa were sloppy on the field in the first innings and once Wolvaardt fell for 33, none of the batters could accelerate, eventually losing wickets in a cluster.
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