Women’s u19 fall short in T20 final: It’s time to address SA’s cricket curse

by Nomonde Simelane

The Women’s u19 squad becomes the next team to make mzansi proud after an impressive performance that led them to the T20 final. However, their loss has led many fans to believe that Cricket South Africa is in great need of cleansing to rid themselves of a particular curse.

The future of South African cricket appears to be in great hands as the u19 team showed up to Malaysia ready for the battle that is the T20 World Cup that lay ahead of them. Their journey to the final was characterised by defeating a strong Australian side, a long-awaited victory for the baby Proteas.

The only thing standing between the South African side and the ultimate prize was the Goliath of women’s u19 cricket aka the defending champions, India. Despite battling it out to the very end, mzansi fell short by 9 wickets, making India back-to-back champions.

 

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For many South African cricket fans, this loss felt like rubbing salt in a deep wound as it marks the fourth time a South African side has suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the final. The first came in the Women’s 2023 T20 final when mzansi faced off against a strong Australian side at home, the second coming shortly after at the men’s 2024 T20 final, where the proteas fell to back-to-back champions in India. The third is still a fresh wound, coming at the 2024 women’s T20 final, where the team fell to Australia, causing immense heartbreak to South African sports.


The latest loss from the women’s u19 team has had mzansi’s sports fans scratching their heads trying to come up with a plausible cause for such unfortunate luck on South Africa’s side. Fans seem to all agree on the fact that the talent and coaching staff are not the problem, making this an even more confusing phenomenon. However, fans have adopted a short memory as far as this is concerned, as they now look forward to the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final that is set to take place this June.

Mzansi has put all of their faith and hope in much-loved captain Themba Bavuma, after pulling off a series of impressive performances in his latest showings.

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