In the Sunday final in Dubai, New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr, an all-rounder, set new records with her outstanding bat and ball performance, which helped her country win the Women’s T20 World Cup for the first time ever by defeating South Africa by a dominating 32 runs.
With a top score of 43, Kerr—who was crowned Player of the Match and Player of the Tournament—led New Zealand to an overwhelming 158-5 in their 20 overs.
After that, the Wellington native, 24, took 3-24 and, most importantly, removed Laura Wolvaardt and Anneke Bosch to limit South Africa to 126-9 in their 20 overs.
“We all know she is a once in a generation player,” said New Zealand captain Sophie Devine.
“What she was able to do tonight was incredible. Physically to do what she did with the bat, I think she can’t feel her legs.
“She is not a bad cricketer but the person that she is, the world is her oyster.”
Devine’s career came to a delightful end with the victory.
The White Ferns defeated Australia in the 2010 final by a margin of just three runs, and it took 14 years for them to win. Moreover, they were defeated by England in the 2009 title game.
It also marks a remarkable change of form as they had lost 10 T20Is coming into the tournament. They had won just five of their previous 22 before their eye-catching win over India in their opening game.
“I started to dream last night about what it feels to hold the trophy with this team,” said Devine.
“The great thing about this group is we know what we have been trying to achieve in the last 15, 18, 24 months.
“We kept taking steps in right directions, you want momentum and we came to the World Cup on the back of 10 successive losses. But everyone starts on zero.”
For South Africa, who demolished six-time winners Australia in the semi-final, it made for a double disappointment having lost last year’s final to the Aussies in Cape Town.
“Our focus was just to reset, not get too ahead of ourselves,” said skipper Wolvaardt.
“We knew that we still had a really quality opponent in New Zealand to go and yeah, we just didn’t play our best cricket tonight.”
