The Women T20 World Cup is being played for its ninth edition, as the UAE turned hosts for the iconic ICC event in women’s cricket. Bangladesh, who were the initial hosts, later moved the tournament to the UAE due to the political unrest in the country.
After weeks of group-stage nurturing, the likes of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and West Indies women made it to the semi-finals of the competition. Likes of Indian women and England women were eliminated in their course to the knockouts.
Afterwards, South African women created history by breaking two records with a single semi-final win, as they broke their record of defeating Australian women for the first time in the history of the tournament. Also, this broke the Aussie Women’s winning streak after 15 years in the competition.
Now, in the second semi-final today at Sharjah, which featured New Zealand women alongside West Indies women, the Kiwi women have advanced to the finals with an 8-run victory over Windies women.
Both these two sides have advanced into the semi-finals before, as they have played the finals as well, just like the last final of the T20 World Cup was featured between Australia Women and South Africa Women.
However, this time around both these teams in the semis have never won the T20 World Cup, and either team winning would see a new team to have won the World Cup, as the world witnesses a new champion.
A brief glimpse of the NZ-W vs. WI-W 2nd Semi-final match
New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine won the toss and elected to bat first on the track, as Suzie Bates, the highest T20 World Cup run scorer, came into bat alongside debutant Plimmer.
The opening stand seemed to be great for New Zealand before the experienced Windies campaigner who turned around retirement to feature in the last probable World Cup left the Blackcap women baffled with her 4-fer.
New Zealand Women could only post a total of 128 runs, which did not seem like a very huge total for the West Indies, who chased down the big score against England before entering the semis.
West Indies Women were very close to entering the finals for another time, while likes of class players Hayley Matthews and Stafanie Taylor could not gather more runs, as Dottin once again started to fill off the match with the bat as she smashed a 33-run striking at 150. NZ’s Wonderwomen, Amelia Kerr once again struck with Dottin’s wicket.
Bates picked the final wicket of the game for New Zealand as they entered the finals; either team winning would create the record in the history of the tournament.
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