By Neil Manthorp.
Proteas skipper Laura Wolvaardt won the toss and decided to bowl first in their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final match-up against New Zealand at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday evening.
It is being called the ‘final that no one saw coming’ with both teams gunning for a first ever women’s T20 World Cup title.
A new World Cup winner will be crowned in women’s T20 internationals, after previous winners Australia and West Indies, were knocked out by the Proteas and New Zealand respectively in the semifinals, while another previous winner England didn’t make the knockouts.
So it is all set to be a historic encounter and both teams will be eager not to finish as runners-up again, after New Zealand were beaten by England and Australia in the 2009 and 2010 finals respectively, while the Proteas fell to Australia in last year’s final in Cape Town.
Both sides named unchanged teams from their semifinal wins, while both go into the final with similar records, having suffered just one defeat in the pool stage while winning everything else.
It is thus a clash between two in-form teams and it will be interesting to see who emerges victorious at the end of the day.
South Africa: Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Tazmin Brits, Marizanne Kapp, Anneke Bosch, Sune Luus, Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Annerie Dercksen, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Nonkululeko Mlaba, Ayabonga Khaka
New Zealand: Suzie Bates, Georgia Plimmer, Amelia Kerr, Sophie Devine (capt), Brooke Halliday, Maddy Green, Isabella Gaze (wk), Lea Tahuhu, Rosemary Mair, Eden Carson, Fran Jonas.