Dubai, Oct 18: Anneke Bosch smashed an unbeaten half-century as South Africa hammered defending champions Australia by 8 wickets to enter ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 final. Bosch hit a career best 74 off just 48, smashing eight 4s and a solitary 6 to help South Africa chase down 135 in 17.2 overs. Captain Laura Wolvaardt also led from the front, hitting 42 off just 37 balls before Annabel Sutherland got rid off her in the 15th over. Earlier, South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt won the toss and opted to bowl against Australia in semi-final.Laura Wolvaardt, South Africa Women captain, said, [on where does this win rank in her career] I think it is right up there, it is one of the best wins of my cricketing career for sure. Couple of other girls said it as well. Such an amazing chase, Anneke batted superbly. It has been a good year for us, really collective group effort, we maybe analysed a bit more about the other teams, glad some of the plans worked and I thought the bowlers bowled excellently to restrict them. We did not have the best two oversĀ at the start of the game, and Taz and I had a chat and we needed to put the foot down and Anneke played her role brilliantly as well, gave us the kick. One of the best of her career and what a time to bring it up. [on whom she prefers in the final, West Indies or New Zealand] I really don’t know, both sides are destructive on their day, West Indies look like favorites right now but you can’t discount Amelia Kerr and co. [on the crowd support] Nice crowd and lots of South Africans in there.
Tahlia McGrath, Australia Women captain: It’s going to be pretty hard to take. We just didn’t really show up tonight. You can’t afford to do that in tournaments like this. 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 really hard over the off-season, fine-tuning some things. We really were prepped coming into here. Felt like we left no stone unturned. Just didn’t show up on the night. [on their batting innings] We found it quiteĀ tricky, 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 totally different wicket. [on their bowling plans] We were trying to keep it really simple on that wicket and we couldn’t execute and got punished, we kept saying a couple of overs and a couple of wickets, so that weĀ could wrestle the momentum back but we could not do it. Schutt has been huge for us this tournament, she leads from the front, takes poles for fun and the youngsters, Phoebs and Bells are coming through, so we have a really good future. We have got a really big summer to finish first. There is always something next on the calendar.