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YEAR END WRAP: Men and Women WCups

aquatics31 December 2024 07:55| © MWP
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The Men’s T20 World Cup made its way to the United States of America for the very first time this year, as co-hosts with the West Indies. With it came some uncertainty regarding how well the game of cricket would be received by an American audience, how the unusual time zone would affect the global TV viewership numbers and how the hastily-conjured-together temporary cricket stadium in New York would play out.

Apart from the spectacles of the game like the India versus Pakistan clash, matches in the USA weren’t well attended and the drop-in pitches in New York made stroke-playing difficult. This was unfortunate in the one format where crowds come to see the ball flying off the bat. This was especially important in a country where the aim was to attract new fans to the game of cricket.

At Nassau County in New York, the highest score across eight matches was 137, with scores as low as 119 and 113 being defended successfully. It also didn’t help that some teams had to travel over two hours through the morning rush-hour to get to the stadium for the 10:30am starts.

From a Proteas perspective, general expectations were quite low. The team came into the tournament having lost nine of their 11 completed T20 International matches since the beginning of 2023, including a 0-3 series loss against the West Indies just before the competition kicked off.

The Proteas played their first three matches on suspect pitches in New York. Having beaten Sri Lanka in the first match by six wickets after skittling them out for 77, they faced up to their bogey team next. That’s right, the Netherlands, who had beaten them in the previous two World Cups.

Despite restricting the orange brigade to 103 for nine in their 20 overs, the Proteas found themselves in a heap of trouble at 12 for four at the end of the powerplay. They managed to dig themselves out of that hole thanks to a match-winning 59*(51) by David Miller and a vital 33(37) by Tristan Stubbs, allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, that relief was short-lived as the Proteas managed only 113 for six in their 20 overs against Bangladesh. With only 11 runs to defend off the last over, captain Aiden Markram made the bold call of throwing the ball to Keshav Maharaj, who had never fulfilled that role in his entire T20 career up to that point. However, as he often does, Maharaj rose to the occasion to seal victory for the Proteas by four runs.

If the Proteas thought their troubles were over, they were in for a rude awakening. The last match of the group stage was against Nepal, and they came out fighting. This time, the men in green and gold only managed to scrape to 115 for seven, largely thanks to an unbeaten 27 off only 18 balls by Stubbs on a pitch where none of the other batters in his team could even achieve a strike rate of a run-a-ball.

The match once again came down to the last over where Nepal required only eight runs for victory. In fact, it came down to the last ball, with Nepal requiring two runs to win and one to tie the match. What followed was an extremely fortunate run-out with the ball, thrown by Quinton de Kock and deflecting off the batter to Klaasen, who threw down the stumps. This meant victory by the most minimal of margins for the Proteas and by hook or by crook, they had made it four out of four.

They then proceeded to beat the USA, England and the West Indies in the Super Eights to set up a semifinal against Afghanistan. This meant that the T20 World Cup would have a new finalist for the very first time as neither the Proteas, nor Afghanistan had ever made it that far. On a pitch that offered plenty for the pace bowlers to work with, the Proteas ran through the Afghanistan line-up to bowl them all out for only 56, their lowest total in T20Is. They duly knocked off the target in only 8.5 overs with nine wickets in hand, sealing a date with destiny, also known as India.

India won the final toss of the tournament and elected to bat first. Marco Jansen had a forgettable day with the ball as India surged to 176. This seemed like a steep task for a batting line-up who had struggled to put up a strong showing for most of the tournament. De Kock and Stubbs laid a solid-enough platform as the Proteas moved up to 71 for three after nine overs. However, the required rate had climbed to almost 10 runs per over at that point and it felt like the match was slowly drifting away from them.

Then, out of nowhere, Klaasen produced an onslaught almost unheard of in a match of this magnitude. He smoked a 23-ball fifty which included ransacking 24 runs off Axar Patel’s final over. This brought the equation down to 30 runs required of 30 balls, with six wickets in hand. Surely this would be that watershed moment.

Unfortunately, as you may painfully recall, dreams of lifting the trophy and millions of already-bruised hearts were shattered once more. Klaasen lost his wicket, and the chase came crumbling down. Miller’s last-ditch effort to work a miracle fell short by the width of Suryakumar Yadav’s bootlace and tears flowed freely from players and fans alike as all of South Africa were once again left with the feeling of what could have been.

JUST NOT TO BE: ICC Women’s T20 World Cup

Going into the Women’s T20 World Cup, Australia were once again the favourites. The Proteas Women had fared a bit better than their male counterparts, having won 13 of their 28 completed matches since the start of 2023 leading up to the tournament.

They found themselves in Group B together with England, Bangladesh, the West Indies and Scotland. On paper this looked like an easier group, but the West Indies and England would potentially provide stiff competition for a spot in the semifinals.

Captain Laura Wolvaardt asked the West Indies to bat first and Nonkululeko Mlaba started the tournament with a bang as she took 4-29 to help restrict the islanders to 118 for six and the Proteas Women had no problem in knocking off the target without losing a single wicket. This set the tone for how they would approach the rest of the tournament.

Next up was England, whom the Proteas Women beat in the semifinal of the last T20 World Cup at home. Wolvaardt elected to bat first but the Proteas Women were unable to get their innings going and stumbled to 99 for four at the end of 17 overs.

A late flourish by Annerie Dercksen, who made 20 unbeaten runs off only 11 balls, at least took them up to 124 for six in their 20 overs but England closed the match out with seven wickets in hand. This left the Proteas Women in a position where they had to ensure that they beat Bangladesh and Scotland and improve their Net Run Rate. They managed to do just that and then they had to wait for the match between the West Indies and England to play out to know their fate.

West Indies beat England comfortably and the Proteas Women progressed to the semifinals by virtue of a superior Net Run Rate to that of England. However, it wasn’t enough to top the group, which meant that they would have to face the mighty Aussies in the semifinal.

The Proteas Women chose to bowl first and restricted Australia to 134 for five. This still seemed like an imposing total in a semifinal, knowing that they had to face a strong bowling attack with scoreboard pressure. As it had been all tournament long, the feeling was that the opening pair of Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits would have to do the bulk of the scoring if they were to get anywhere close to the target of 135.

But Brits 15 (15balls) was dismissed early and Anneke Bosch, who was having a torrid tournament up until that point, strode to the crease at No 3. However, all concern about the form of Bosch quickly evaporated as she unfurled every shot in the book and took the attack to Australia. She brought out the sweep, the reverse sweep, the slog sweep and the classical cover drive as she bulldozed her way to a match-winning 74 not out from only 48 balls. It was the type of clean striking not often associated with a Proteas team in a knockout match.

A new-found confidence bubbled inside the Proteas Women camp as they entered the final against New Zealand. They had just beaten the best team in the world. They were one step away from doing what the men failed to do only a few months prior.

Captain Wolvaardt won another toss and, as she did in the semifinal, she chose to field first. This had worked for her team up to this point in the tournament, so even when conventional wisdom suggested that teams should look to bat first in a final, they decided to bowl.

New Zealand came in with a much more attacking mindset than Australia did in the semifinal, and it seemed to catch the Proteas Women off guard and put them on the backfoot from the start. They were never truly able to restrict the flow of runs and New Zealand put up a stiff target of 159. Their innings was led by allrounder Amelia Kerr.

South Africa once again enjoyed a solid start through their prolific opening partnership with 50 coming up from just 6.4 overs. Unfortunately, this was as good as it was going to get in their chase. The rest of the batting line-up crumbled under the pressure of a climbing required run-rate and only two others were able to even make it into double figures.

In the end, they succumbed to a stunning performance by Kerr who followed up her 43 with the bat, with figures of 3-24 in her four overs. The Proteas Women fell short by 32 runs and another World Cup final heartbreak was etched into 2024.

But there was still a great deal of pride to be taken from the team's performance. Wolvaardt was the tournament’s leading scorer with 223 runs at an average of 44.60 and Brits was in second spot with 187 runs at an average of 37.4. Mlaba ended the tournament as the second leading wicket-taker with 12 wickets at an average of 11.33 and an economy rate of 5.66.

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