"It was a shock tonight" - Tahlia McGrath on defeat in AUS vs SA Women's T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final

Australia's stand-in captain Tahlia McGrath acknowledged that it was shocking losing to South Africa by that wide a margin in the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final. The all-rounder hailed South African batters for making it look like a different wicket.

The defending champions were sent into bat by South African captain Laura Woolvardt at the Dubai International Stadium on October 17. However, they managed only 134 on the board. In response, South Africa chased the total down with eight wickets to spare as Laura Woolvardt and Anneke Bosch scored half-centuries.

Speaking at the post-match presentation, McGrath, captaining in place of Alyssa Healy for the second successive time, admitted Australia were thoroughly outplayed. She also acknowledged to be feeling that 134 was defendable on the surface. She said:

"Pretty tough pill to swallow, it was a shock tonight. We were short and you can't afford to do that in these kind of tournaments. We were thoroughly outplayed by South Africa tonight. We have had this World Cup in our minds for a long time, we had a lot of preparation, we did well in the off-season camp, we left no stone unturned."

[on their batting innings] "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, felt 140-150 was par but South Africa batted so well and made it look like it was a totally different wicket."

The defending champions had lost Grace Harris and Georgia Wareham for single-figure scores. While the stand-in skipper along with Beth Mooney shared a 50-run stand, they took 55 balls for it. Ellyse Perry and Phoebe Litchfield provided the impetus to lift Australia to 134.

"We couldn't execute and got punished" - Tahlia McGrath on Australia's bowling

McGrath underlined that Australia tried to keep their bowling plans simple and hoped to wrestle the momentum back but couldn't. She added:

"We are trying to keep it really simple on that wicket and we couldn't execute and got punished, we kept saying a couple of overs and a couple of wickets, so that we could wrestle the momentum back but we could not do it."

South Africa will face either New Zealand or West Indies in the final at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday, October 20.