New Zealand clinch first ever T20 World Cup title after beating S Africa

The New Zealand cricket team won the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 title by defeating South Africa at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

This is their first-ever T20 World Cup title win after they lost the finals of the mega-event in 2009 and 2010. 

The Kiwis were defeated by England in 2009 and in 2010, they lost to Australia. 

But this year, the Black Caps have ended their drought and defeated the Proteas by 32 runs. The Laura Wolvaardt-led side lost against Australia in the previous edition of the tournament.

South Africa had seemingly won the 2024 tournament as after beginning their chase of 159 runs, they were 51 without a loss of a wicket.

However, things turned bleak for the Proteas as their wickets started to topple down in quick succession. The debacle started from Tazmin Brits’ fall and raced through the rest of the batters.

Brits was followed by captain Wolvaardt who scored 33 runs off 27 balls.

The Kiwi bowlers were so exceptional throughout the second innings that aside from the two openers, the rest of the line-up failed to score double-figure runs except Chloe Tryon and Annerie Dercksen who added 14 and 10 runs to the scoreboard respectively.

South Africa finished their innings on 126 runs at the loss of nine wickets.

For the Black Caps, the stars of the innings turned out to be Amelia Kerr and Rosemary Mair as the duo dismissed three of the Proteas batters each.

Eden Carson, Fran Jones and Brooke Halliday grabbed one wicket each.

Undoubtedly, the Kiwis have won the title due to the efforts of their bowlers.

Earlier, the Proteas had won the toss and invited the Kiwis to bat first with Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer opening the innings.

Throughout their innings, the Black Caps suffered a loss of five wickets and only Bates, Kerr and Brooke Halliday scored commendable runs.

Bates added 32 runs off 31 deliveries while Kerr remained the highest-scorer for New Zealand with her 43 off 38.

Halliday’s 38 off 28 steered New Zealand to a score of 158 runs which turned out to be a good enough score to lift a T20 World Cup title.

Moreover, their skipper, Sophie Devine could only score six runs off 10 balls as she was dismissed by Nadine de Klerk.

Playing XIs

New Zealand: Suzie Bates, Georgia Plimmer, Amelia Kerr, Sophie Devine (c), Broke Halliday, Maddy Green, Isabella Gaze, Rosemary Mair, Lea Tahuhu, Eden Carson, and Fran Jonas.

South Africa: Laura Wolvaardt (c), Tazmin Brits, Anneke Bosch, Chloe Tryon, Marizanne Kapp, Sune Luus, Annerie Dercksen, Nadine de Klerk, Sinalo Jafta, Nonkululeko Mlaba, and Ayabonga Khaka