Tahlia McGrath, Australia’s stand-in captain was left disappointed as her team lost the semi-final match against South Africa. “We just didn’t show up,” McGrath said after their defeat. She also added that losing to South Africa on this occasion only feels hard to accept as they have ended the defending champions’ campaign and paved the way for South Africa to ensure a second successive final for them in the tournament. South Africa won by 8 wickets, and snapped Australia’s 15-match winning streak in the Women’s T20 World Cup.

‘We Didn’t Show Up’: Tahila McGrath After Defeat

“It’s going to be pretty hard to take. We just didn’t really show up tonight. You can’t afford to do that in tournaments like this. Full credit to South Africa, they outplayed us tonight. We have had this World Cup in our minds for a very long time now. We worked really hard over the off-season, fine-tuning some things. We really were prepped for coming here. Felt like we left no stone unturned. Just didn’t show up on the night,” Tahlia said in the post-match presentation ceremony.

Australia Struggled To Score Runs

Despite a late flourish by Ellyse Perry and Phoebe Litchfield, Australia were well short at 134 for 5. South Africa chased down the runs comfortably with 16 balls left, which is a testament to South African batting and their approach towards chasing said Tahlia.

“We found it quite tricky, South Africa bowled quite well, took the pace off, and they made it tough for us to take risks. At the halfway stage, we felt 140-150 was par, but South Africa batted so well and made it look like it was a totally different wicket.”

“We were trying to keep it really simple on that wicket, and we couldn’t execute and got punished, we kept saving a couple of overs and a couple of wickets, so that we could wrestle the momentum back. We could not do it. Schutt has been huge for us in this tournament. She leads from the front, takes poles for fun and the youngsters, Phoebs and Bells are coming through, so we have a really good future.”

She also admitted the fact that Australian bowlers failed in making their plans as she saw with her own eyes captain Laura Wolvaardt and Anneke Bosch going great guns and building a tremendous partnership to put South Africa’s first ever win in their ties against Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup.