‘Hard to take’: Australia’s World Cup dominance ends with shock semi-final elimination

Australia’s pain from missing a first Twenty20 World Cup final in seven tournaments over 15 years will carry into the home summer, after captain Alyssa Healy revealed the extent of the foot injury that kept her out of the knockout game.

Healy, who watched helplessly as the Australians put in a tentative batting performance that ended a run of six consecutive T20 World Cup trophies, has a ruptured plantar fascia, and will be unavailable for the Sydney Sixers until the back end of the WBBL at the earliest.

While she insisted that the eight-wicket defeat to South Africa would not define the team, Healy, stand-in skipper Tahlia McGrath and coach Shelley Nitschke will have some thinking to do about the approach that saw them make 5-134 with big hitters Ash Gardner and Annabel Sutherland still padded up to bat.

“It was just a matter of function and pain and what I could handle, and ultimately, I probably only had one game in me,” Healy said. “I tried to make the team decision and sat myself down instead of taking the risk. It was hard to watch knowing that you can’t really go out there and help.

“I think one bad night doesn’t necessarily define us as a team. Yes, we would love to win the trophy but that’s not the case.”

Not since the inaugural event in 2009 has the decider been played without Australia, and on six of those occasions they had lifted the trophy, including at the MCG in 2020 and most recently by defeating South Africa in Cape Town early last year.

This was a staggering upset on those terms, but also others: South Africa had only ever beaten Australia in a T20 once before, earlier this year. They had lost seven previous World Cup meetings.

Entering this game, Australia were on a 15-game winning streak in T20 World Cups, dating back to the 2020 event. They had seemed capable of shrugging off the loss of captain Healy with an ankle injury, seamlessly slotting in Beth Mooney to keep wicket and McGrath to captain.

And in terms of off-field muscle, there is little comparison between the highly resourced and world-leading Australian system and that of South Africa. Australia’s previous two World Cup wins had involved narrow victories over the South Africans – in a semi-final in Sydney in 2020, and then in the decider at Newlands in 2023.

The Australians were left crestfallen by the defeat, an upset of rare magnitude, albeit in cricket’s most fickle format. India and England had previously fallen by the wayside in this tournament, with New Zealand and West Indies to fight for the other spot in the final on Friday night.

“In tournament play, you can’t afford to be off the mark at all,” McGrath said. “We were a little bit off tonight. They were spot on. And yeah, that’s why I’m sitting here now. It’s disappointing. It’s hard to take.”

South Africa’s Anneke Bosch celebrates her fifty runs.Credit: AP

Restricting the Australians to 5-134 after sending them in to bat in Dubai, captain Laura Wolvaardt (42, 37 balls) set the tone for an aggressive chase before the game was sealed by an extraordinary and unbeaten knock from little-known Anneke Bosch (74, 48 balls).

In 10 previous WBBL appearances for the Brisbane Heat, 31-year-old Bosch had cobbled just 46 runs from eight innings with a top score of 14. So far at this event, her top score had been just 25. But in Dubai, Bosch was the boss, crunching Australia’s vaunted attack to win the game with nearly three overs to spare.

Australia’s innings never really found fluency, restricted to just 35 from the opening power play and only able to reach 134 thanks to a late flurry from Phoebe Litchfield. The South Africans used the new ball well, getting plenty of swing.

Phoebe Litchfield dives successfully in the crease during the semi-final match.Credit: AP

But Australia will rue the fact that players as powerful as Gardner and Sutherland did not get to bat, perhaps suggesting others could have taken a few more risks to push the tally up past 150.

“Early on we thought it was really tricky,” McGrath said. “[Beth Mooney] and I at the 10-over mark thought maybe 140 was par. We felt like consolidating a little bit, try, and rotate the strike, get into innings, and then take the game on.

“But they bowled really well. And we were certainly trying. We tried almost everything. And we’re constantly communicating, constantly trying to come up with a plan. Just, yeah, it didn’t go our way … probably left a few out there.

“Phoebs came in made it look really easy, Pez with a really good contribution. Going into our bowling innings we thought while we were slightly under, we thought we could defend that – but yeah, just wasn’t quite on with the ball.”

Australia suffered a shock semi-final loss to South Africa.Credit: Getty Images

While McGrath still felt the score was defendable, her bowlers quickly had no answer to Wolfvaardt and Bosch. Tellingly, the Australian spin attack of Georgia Wareham, Sophie Molineux and Gardner were unable to secure a breakthrough. Prodigious wrist spinner Alana King was left out of the side throughout the tournament.

“When we found out that we’re playing them in the semis, it was kind of a thing of, also we have nothing to lose as a team, because the odds are probably in their favour,” South Africa’s Bosch said.

“But I think coming into this game after we beat them earlier in the year for the first time ever in a T20 game, that gave us a lot of confidence and it made us realise that it is possible for us to beat them.

“So, it was a bit unseen or inexperienced territory, or we know we haven’t done before … we were a bit more confident. We knew that in these conditions, it will probably be more fair game, and we will have a better chance of beating them.”

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