The White Ferns are the world champions. Let that sink in! A team that was coming into the T20 World Cup with 10 defeats in a row, that had won only three matches since 2022 prior to the tournament, started its campaign by hammering India in their opening game and that kickstarted the competition for them. Apart from a blip against Australia, New Zealand swept away every single side in their way to win the tournament eventually as the 'grandmas' Sophie Devine, Suzie Bates and Lea Tahuhu, the three who's who of White Ferns for a decade and a half finally have a trophy to show for all the struggles, sacrifices, heartbreaks and string of losses they had to face on the way to the glory.
The Black Caps began the day with a rare Test win against and in India, after 36 years and the White Ferns capped it off with a maiden T20 World Cup trophy for the country. The New Zealand women lost in the back-to-back finals to Australia and England in 2009 and 2010, the men lost in the 2021 final at the very same venue where Devine and Co beat South Africa by 32 runs to clinch the maiden T20 World Cup title.
This is New Zealand's fourth ICC title with the men winning the Champions Trophy in 2000, the World Test Championship (WTC) in 2021 and the women winning the ODI World Cup in 2000 led by Emily Drumm.
Suzie Bates, who struggled throughout her career to play even one Test match for New Zealand, became the most capped women's international player as she took the field for Aotearoa in the Women's T20 World Cup final and what a fairytale ending it was as she will now have a glitzy trophy in her hand and a winner's medal around her neck.
It all started with Bates and Amelia Kerr, the once-in-a-generation player for the White Ferns, taking the attack to South Africa after the loss of Georgia Plimmer's wicket early. The attack pushed South Africa a bit back. The Proteas got Bates out of the powerplay at a crucial juncture and the latter had slowed down a bit. Till that time, there wasn't much damage done and losing captain Sophie Devine was in a way a good thing as the game started to shift with Brooke Halliday's arrival
Halliday was the enforcer in the semi-final against the West Indies and she did that on Sunday against the Proteas too. The 57-run partnership off just 42 between Halliday and Kerr took the steam out of South Africa's bowling and birthday girl Maddy Green's finishing touch was just the icing on the cake.
If it would have been 140-145, South Africa, the serial chasers in this tournament, would have fancied their chances but 159 required an Anneke Bosch against Australia level knock while others playing around her. To their credit, the power-packed opening partnership of Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits started their innings wicketless in the powerplay.
However, the pressure of the final got to South African batters in the little period after the powerplay. The Proteas scored 30 runs in the next six overs while losing all of their top four to basically surrender. Chloe Tryon tried her bit at the end, however, the middle and lower order that didn't have much hit in the tournament prior, had too much to do.
New Zealand now have become the third women's team to win a T20 as well as an ODI World Cup while South Africa's dream continues having lost in finals twice in a row and the men too lost it to India earlier this year.
