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Dubai, 18 October (HIST). Australia's stand-in captain Tahlia McGrath, who was eliminated from the 2024 T20 World Cup after their 8-wicket defeat in the semi-final against South Africa, said her team scored a few runs short. The six-time champions crashed out of the 2024 T20 World Cup after losing to South Africa by 8 wickets in the first semi-final in Dubai on Thursday (October 17).
After the early dismissals of Grace Harris and Georgia Wareham, Australia came back strongly with Beth Mooney and McGrath putting together a cautious partnership. Mooney scored 44 runs in 42 balls while McGrath scored 27 runs in 33 balls and together they made a partnership of 50 runs in 55 balls for only the third wicket. Australia could score only 35 runs in the powerplay and 53 runs in 10 overs. The Australian team scored 134 runs for 5 wickets in 20 overs.
McGrath credited South Africa's disciplined bowling for restricting his team to a low score.
McGrath said, “In the initial batting we felt that it was a very difficult wicket. South Africa bowled really well and attacked the stumps and slowed down the pace and made it difficult for us, or forced us to really take risks. So maybe we gave a few short runs with the bat and still we thought we would be in the game. Still we thought if we bowled well it would be a competitive score. But yes, they made it a very good wicket to bat on and we deviated from our plan a little bit. “We were a little behind on every side and came up against a team that executed everything really well.”
He said, “We found that the ball was not coming on the bat as well as we wanted. South Africa bowled really good pace and as I said, they bowled very straight to us. We felt the need to be a little bit stronger, try and rotate the strike, get the innings going and then take the game forward. But he bowled really well. We tried almost everything and we were constantly communicating, constantly trying to come up with a plan. Just, yes, it did not go our way and yes perhaps some players being out also caused harm.”
In contrast, South Africa won the chase thanks to Anneke Bosch's explosive inning of 74* off 48 balls. Laura Wolvaardt (42) played a supporting role by making a partnership of 96 runs with Bosch for the second wicket.