AUS Women vs SA Women, 1st Semi-Final at Dubai, Women's T20 World Cup, Oct 17 2024 - Ball by Ball Commentary

That's it from us today. Hope you all enjoyed our coverage. Do watch out this space for all the post-match content. I am signing off on behalf of Sudarshanan and Ranjith. Good night and take care!

Wolvaardt, South Africa captain: " [the win] it's right up there. I think this is one of the best wins of my cricketing career for sure. A couple of other girls have said it as well. I think that was such an amazing chase. Bowlers are excellent. It's been a good year for us. I think it's been a real collective group effort. Obviously with them being the side that they are, I'm always wondering. You're always looking at ways to sort of find a bit of a weakness. Maybe spend a bit more time analysing them than other teams. I'm glad some of the plans worked today. And I felt like our bowlers did excellently to restrict them. We didn't have the best first two overs of the game. And then Taz and I just had a chat in the middle and said we have to get ahead of this very early. And then Anneke played her role perfectly. I think she just needs to give us that sort of kick in the innings from over six to 12. And that's exactly what she did today. [on the opponent for final] I think both sides are really disruptive on their day. Obviously, we're seeing these different behaviours at the moment. But you can never count out."

McGrath, Australia's stand-in captain: "It's going to be pretty hard to take. We just didn't really show up tonight. You can't afford to do that in tournaments like this. Full credit to South Africa. They outplayed us tonight. [on prep] Yeah, we've had this World Cup in our minds for a very long time now. We worked really hard over the off-season, fine-tuning some things. We really were prepped coming into here. Felt like we left no stone unturned. Just didn't show up on the night. Lost toss, had to bat first on that pitch. We sort of jokingly said 160-170 [as target]. It wasn't quite that kind of deck this evening. We found it quite tricky. South Africa bowled really well. They took the pace off nicely. Made it hard for us to take risks. Yeah, the halfway mark there, we thought maybe 140-150 was par. Fell short. [on plans] We mis-executed a little bit. Just off our best and got punished. Tried to wrestle the momentum back. We just kept saying a couple of wickets, a couple of overs, and we'll swing it back. But unfortunately we couldn't do that. [On Schutt] She's been huge for us this tournament. She leads from the front with the ball. And then you look at some of our youngsters, and Bells, and Pheebs, and then the future's certainly bright for our side. [on Australia's future] We've got a really big summer to finish off first. There's so much cricket to play. There's always something next on the calendar."

Bosch is the Player of the Match:"Heart is racing. It was quite tough out there but I'm really glad we could get over the line and that I could finally contribute with some runs. Yeah, I think just keep trying to push the floor and stick to what's in your works and what works in these conditions. Yeah, not overthink it but don't try too many things. And yeah, just play what the conditions allow and stick to what's in your mind. [on what it means] Yeah, a lot. I can't really describe it but we knew we were capable of it and we had a pretty good tournament so far coming into this game and we were quite confident. I think our batters like Taz and Wolvaardt have been incredible this tournament and also our bowlers have been really, really good. Important to hold on to your catches. Yeah, I'm just glad I held on to it. We only won against one of our previous games. It's a similar catch that I dropped so I'm glad I could take this one. [message for fans] We really appreciate it and we feel it even when we're not here. We just kind of remind ourselves about the feeling we had at last year's World Cup when all our fans were actually there. Very incredible feeling so we kind of try to stay for them and work with our players."

8.48pm: South Africa beat Australia for the first time in a T20 World Cup to qualify for the title clash. Unbelieve scenes in Dubai. South Africa rode on the back of an incredible effort from Bosch's 74 not out to chase down 135 with 16 balls to spare. Mlaba is in tears and so are a bunch of South Africa players. So much emotion and words might not be sufficient to describe how it feels for South Africa.

Mooney and McGrath were slow to adapt and struggled against SA's excellent bowling. But Perry and Litchfield upped the ante that saw Australia accumulating 40 runs in the last four overs. But it somehow felt like they were 20 runs short. In the chase, after the wicket of Brits, Wolvaardt and Bosch came out all guns blazing to stun Australia with a phenomenal 96-run stand off 65 balls.

"In hindsight, the slowness of Mooney-McGrath partnership made the difference", feels Kashi. Just 4 needed now

5 needed now

VinayMudunuru: "Bosch bulldozing Australia!! very refreshing to watch!!"

14 off 30 needed

Saravanan KN: "It's no surprise that name with AB is playing a brilliant innings for South Africa once again." -- Haha. Good one

19 off 36