🏏ICC Women's T20I WC 2024: Final - NZW vs SAW at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on 20/10/2024 @7:30PM IST🏏
Suzie Bates never watches the highlights of her bowling, believing she "looks hideous". But she broke that norm on Saturday, reviewing the final moments of New Zealand's last-over win at Sharjah to book themselves the 2024 T20 World Cup final berth after nearly a decade and a half. The heart-rates were still elevated, trying to absorb the magnitude of it all, admitted Chloe Tryon after showing the exit route to serial winners Australia. The disappointment of a home World Cup stings harder than most, and no two teams know the hurt better than New Zealand and South Africa who have, against all odds and admittedly in utmost shock, made it to Sunday's summit clash in Dubai.
Australia's four-peat now a piped dream, a new T20 champion is confirmed. However, for both teams this shot at the elusive silverware means more than just realising a dream. It's a vindication of their faith in the oft thrown around cricketing cliche called the processes. New Zealand (0.312) and South Africa (0.636) had the least win-loss ratio among the 10 participants in the World Cup cycle coming into the tournament. But the results, or the lack thereof, didn't faze them despite the flak both copped.
New Zealand came into the World Cup on the worst losing streak of 10 games, and were written off before landing in the UAE. By stunning one of the title favourites in their opener on a carefully devised year-long plan, Sophie Devine & Co. all but sealed themselves a passage to the knockouts, where they then slayed the team that last time struck them out of the semis. For particularly Devine and Bates, who have played each of the nine T20 World Cups to date and finished as bridesmaids in first-two, it's been an arduous journey back up against a ticking clock.
"Ever since 2009, as a cricketer, when you play a team sport, your ultimate goal is to be a world champion. So, I think it's been all those tournaments that have motivated me and I know Sophie as well, and some of the younger girls - fortunately or unfortunately - don't have that extra motivation. But yeah, it feels like it's just all built to this moment and we get one more opportunity tomorrow to have a good dig. I think that's the most overwhelming thing about it. It has felt like a really long journey to get back to this point," Bates said on Saturday.
South Africa, too, were left to pick up the pieces when they botched a chase against Australia in front of a loud and proud capacity Newlands crowd last year, and the growth in the last 18 months under a new leader has been unmissable.
"I think before we'd kind of get a little bit flustered and now there's a lot more calmness in the group because I feel like the girls have been doing this a long time but I feel like the youngsters as well have soaked that up and are really doing well with that," Chloe Tryon said ahead of what is South Africa's second successive final. "I always feel like the team that stays calm the longest will win the game. I feel like we kind of got flustered - and we do get flustered at times - but I feel like throughout this tournament we've been very calm and very clear on how we want to do things and I think that's just showing the growth team how well they're doing together."
The calmness in their approach was on display in the clinical takedown of the Australian attack to avenge the 2023 loss, with a different match-winner putting their hand up in clutch situation.
The dog fight in the middle and the character shown by both teams - led from the front by leaders who are on the opposite ends of the age and experience spectrum - is another common thread in their road to the final. South Africa's success has been built on its in-form openers and now even the middle-order that follows, with pace spearheads Marizanne Kapp and Ayabonga Khaka holding in their own when spin was seen as the shortcut to success. New Zealand, meanwhile, have strewn together victories inspired by young and experienced alike at a time when a leadership change is in the offing,
Not many would have predicted this final showdown three weeks ago. Irrespective of who lifts the trophy and who has to heartbreakingly come back to try again next time, never has the spotlight shone brighter on the narrowing gap between the well-offs and those disadvantaged by their own system.
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