On the 9th of February at the pre-match press conference, the skipper Sune Luus spoke about inspiring a nation and they’ve only gone and done that by becoming the first South African cricket team to make a World Cup final.
“It is massive. Every game we play, we keep making history and keep inspiring a nation” the skipper reiterated her sentiments in the post-match interview.
South Africa and England met in four semi-finals and this time the result favoured the team in green. They become the first-ever South African cricket team to reach a final. What made it even sweeter is that it’s on home soil.
After their loss against Sri Lanka, I added that Spain also lost their first match in the Fifa World Cup in South Africa in 2010 and went on to win the whole thing. All that stands between the Proteas are the defending champions, Australia on Sunday. It’s also good to know that no team that has gone undefeated and gone on to win a T20 World Cup.
The only “Brit” that stole the show was Tazmin as she starred with a marvellous 54-ball 68 and picked up four catches including a stunner that is possibly one of the best catches of the tournament.
The Momentum Proteas batters had to come to the fore if they were to be competitive and test their opponents.
The openers got off to a cautious start in the powerplay, their first three overs were quiet but they picked up the pace ever so slightly and scored just 37 runs for the loss of no wicket. Brits (68) and Wolvaardt (53), who both scored half-centuries in the final group game against Bangladesh, continued from where they left off and registered back-to-back fifties to set the team the perfect platform to accelerate later on.
At 15 overs, they were 116 for 1 but then lost 3 wickets in 6 balls as their innings was pegged back a bit – Sophie Ecclestone proved her worth and picked up two in her over.
Marizanne Kapp played a handy cameo of 27 not out from 13 balls as South Africa set England 165 to advance through to the auspicious final.
“I hope the slow powerplay doesn’t come back to bite them” I kept echoing as England proved me right with their flying start, going at nearly 10 to the over compared to the hosts’ circumspect start.
After three overs they were 30 for 0 compared to SA who was 9 for 0. At the halfway stage it was doom and gloom as this game seemed pretty much dead and buried with England comfortably on 84 for 2.
But the bowlers had other plans and fought till the bitter end. Ayabonga Khaka ended with 4-29, Shabnim Ismail with 3-27 and Nadine de Klerk was once again economical with 1-17.
“We were in and out of the game and it went in waves. We do have the best bowling [attack] in the world but it was against the best batting attack in the world,” Luus continued.
“We kept saying to them they need to be brave and play free cricket. [Khaka] She is a phenomenal bowler, one of the best in the world. Showed her class today. I hope with one game to go we keep doing that.
Luus thanked the crowd and hopes that they turn up to support them for the final on Sunday.
