New Zealand’s ecstatic women cricketers have sealed a glorious weekend of sport for their country by lifting the T20 World Cup for the first time in Dubai, with Amelia Kerr taking pride of place as their hobbling matchwinner.
Player-of-the-tournament winner Kerr, brilliant with a top-scoring knock of 43 and then three key wickets in South Africa’s run chase while clearly struggling with painful cramp in the draining UAE conditions, starred under the lights as the White Ferns beat Australia’s semifinal conquerors comprehensively by 32 runs on Sunday.
It is the first World Cup win for New Zealand since beating Australia in the women’s 50-over final in 2000. The men’s team won the World Test Championship in 2021.
Completely unheralded before the tournament on a 10-game losing streak, New Zealand saved its very best for last to make up for an agonising loss in its last final way back in 2010, when a team featuring now-captain Sophie Devine and fellow “golden oldie” Suzie Bates lost by three runs to Australia in Barbados.
No wonder the world’s most capped women’s player, Bates, at 37, and 35-year-old Devine, joined by 13-year veteran seamer Lea Tahuhu, embraced with joy as they celebrated a triumph against all the odds.
“I started to dream last night about what it might feel like to hold the trophy with this team, didn’t want to get too ahead of myself,” beamed Devine, who is now giving up the captaincy.
“I’m in shock, really,” added Bates.
“No-one expected us to get this far, so we allowed ourselves to play with freedom.
“This means everything to Sophie and myself, we’ve played so long together, she’s been so outstanding leading this team. I think we’ll have some more cuddles later.”
Amelia Kerr (left) top-scored and led the wicket-taking despite struggling in the heat. (AP: Altaf Qadri)
It completed a fantastic weekend for New Zealand sport, with the triumph coming hours after their men’s cricket team earned its first Test win in India for 36 years and the day after their sailors had successfully defended their America’s Cup title off Barcelona.
Then an hour after Hayden Wilde had also won the World Triathlon Championship grand final in Torremolinos, Devine’s side were left celebrating an emotional victory against the team who had comprehensively ended Australia’s run of four global white-ball triumphs in the last four.
New Zealand, put in to bat by South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt, amassed a daunting 5-158 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium with Kerr smacking 43 off 38 balls, Brooke Halliday 38 off 28, and Bates 32 in 31.
After the Proteas started their chase brightly with a half-century opening stand between Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits in less than seven overs, New Zealand took control with Kerr grabbing the crucial wicket of tournament top-scorer Wolvaardt (33 off 27) and Anneke Bosch, Australia’s tormentor, in the same 10th over.
Spinning all-rounder Kerr was struggling to walk properly but ended up with 3-24 off her four overs.
“We all know she is a once-in-a-generation player,” Devine said of the 24-year-old Kerr, who ended up with a record haul of wickets (15) for any world T20 tournament as well as 135 runs.
“What she was able to do tonight was incredible. Physically, to do what she did with the bat, I think she can’t even feel her legs. She is not a bad cricketer but she’s a great person — the world is her oyster.”
Rosemary Mair grabbed 3-25 off her full stint while Eden Carson (1-22), who got rid of the dangerous Marizanne Kapp for eight, and Fran Jonas (1-28), who eked out Brits, also helped dismantle the South African chase as the Proteas limped to 9-126, falling short in a second successive final after their 2023 loss to Australia in Cape Town.
For Australia, the dethroned six-time champions, it was just a case of what might have been as they recalled their victory over New Zealand from 12 days earlier in Sharjah when they crushed Devine’s side by 60 runs.
AAP
