So often vanquished by Australia, South Africa turned the tables in dramatic fashion on Friday morning, knocking out Tahlia McGrath’s team by a crushing margin and ending a run of seven consecutive Twenty20 World Cup finals for Australia. Restricting the Australians to 5-134 after sending them in to bat in Dubai, captain Laura Wolvaardt (42, 37 balls) set the tone for an aggressive chase before the game was sealed by an extraordinary and unbeaten knock from little-known Anneke Bosch (74, 48 balls). In 10 previous WBBL appearances for the Brisbane Heat, 31-year-old Bosch had cobbled just 46 runs from eight innings with a top score of 14.
So far at this event, her top score had been just 25. But in Dubai, Bosch was the boss, crunching Australia’s vaunted attack to win the game with nearly three overs to spare. The Australians were left crestfallen by the defeat, an upset of rare magnitude, albeit in cricket’s most fickle format.
India and England had previously fallen by the wayside in this tournament, with New Zealand and West Indies to fight for the other spot in the final on Friday night. “In tournament play, you can’t afford to be off the mark at all,” McGrath said. “We were a little bit off tonight.
They were spot on. And yeah, that’s why I’m sitting here now. It’s disappointing.
It’s hard to take.” Not since the inaugural event in 2009 has the decider been played without Australia, and on six of those occasions they had lifted the trophy, including.
