Women's T20 World Cup 2024: Revived West Indies look to upset New Zealand in semis

WI skipper Hayley Matthews

From no-hopers to strong challengers; that has been the West Indies journey so far in the Women's T20 World Cup. When they had lost their opening match to South Africa by 10 wickets, nobody gave them an iota of a chance that they would upset a top-notch team like England and storm into the knockout stage. They now run into the high-flying New Zealand in the second semi-final to be played here on Friday night. It is another big challenge they will have to overcome if they hope to repeat the feat of 2016, when they had won their only T20 World Cup defeating Australia in the final at Kolkata.

West Indies skipper Hayley Matthews is upbeat about her team's chances. She said that she was extremely proud of the Caribbean side's progress in the tournament since their embarrassing opening round loss to South Africa. "I think a lot of people wrote us off coming into this tournament and the way we've been able to go about our cricket, especially after the start we had against South Africa, we've just bounced back against Scotland, against Bangladesh, and I think we hadn't beaten England in about six years," Matthews said.

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The White Ferns have been in the finals of the first two editions, but on both occasions finished second best. The team has been playing well this time too, barring in the game against Trans-Tasman rivals. They will have to take positives from the other three games which they won convincingly.

"Probably no one expected us to be here," New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine said.

"I guess that's a bit of a Kiwi way though, we sort of fly under the radar. We know that when we play our best cricket, we can win this thing. We certainly have enjoyed our cricket and what we've been able to achieve so far."