New Zealand Women are the third time lucky as they beat South Africa Women by 32 runs in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 Final in Dubai to lift their first Women's T20 World Cup trophy. 

After South Africa Women captain Laura Wolvaardt chose to field first, New Zealand Women scored 158/5 in 20 overs. In reply, South Africa Women were restricted to 126/9 in 20 overs.

Bates and Kerr provided a controlled start

Although the in-form opener Georgia Plimmer scored only nine runs, another opener Suzie Bates and Amelia Kerr handled the powerplay well, as the White Ferns scored 43/1 at the end of the powerplay. 

Kerr set another important partnership with Halliday

After Bates (32) and captain Sophie Devine (6) were dismissed, Kerr set a game-changing partnership of 57 runs with Brooke Halliday. While Halliday scored 38 off 28 balls with three fours, Kerr scored 43 off 38 balls with four fours.

Maddy Green also had an important cameo of 12 not out in six balls with the help of one six. 

Among the South African bowlers, only Nonkululeko Mlaba took more than one wicket as she ended with the bowling figures of 4-0-31-2. 

South African openers provided a perfect start

In reply, South African in-from openers, skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits, provided a strong start. South Africa Women scored 47/0 at the end of the powerplay as they set up a 51-run partnership for the first wicket.

Kerr again dominated with Mair

While Brits was dismissed for 17 runs, Wolvaardt lost her wicket after scoring 33 off 27 balls with five fours. Proteas couldn’t handle the post-powerplay pressure as their batting collapsed once the openers were dismissed. Chloe Tryon (14) and Annerie Dercksen (10) are the other two batters to reach the double-digit figures in that innings, but there was no fight in the end.

Among the New Zealand Women bowlers, Amelia Kerr (3/24) and Rosemary Mair (3/25) picked up three wickets each. 

Awards

All-rounder Amelia Kerr won the Player of the Match award and Player of the Tournament awards. In this tournament, she finished as the leading wicket-taker with 15 wickets and also scored 135 runs (ninth most run-scorer).