Danny Wyatt-Hodge (Getty Images)

England ended New Zealand’s reign as Women’s T20 World Cup champions with a stunning nine-wicket win at the Oval on Saturday.The defending champions were eliminated from the group stage after losing three of their five matches.Earlier in the day, New Zealand got an unexpected boost as Ireland beat West Indies by six wickets in Bristol, keeping the Kiwis’ semi-final hopes alive.Ireland’s victory also ended their 12-year-long 21-match losing streak in the five Women’s T20 World Cups.New Zealand veteran Sophie Devine quips, “Some of us are half-Irish now.” “(Our) destiny is in our hands.”However, New Zealand still have to beat an unbeaten England team to reach the semi-finals ahead of West Indies.

Wyatt-Hodge enabled England to chase the target with ease

After New Zealand scored 163/6, England chased the target easily, reaching 164/1 with 16 balls remaining.Opener Danny Wyatt-Hodge scored an unbeaten 89 off 53 balls with 15 fours and a six in front of 21,018 spectators, the highest ever attendance for a Women’s T20 World Cup group-stage match.The remaining two semi-final places will be decided on Sunday, with Australia, South Africa and India still in the race.

Wyatt-Hodge breaks tournament record

Wyatt-Hodge continued his excellent tournament after scoring a century in England’s opening match. He now has two fifties and one century to his name in the competition.With 282 runs, she is the leading run-scorer in the tournament. She also broke the Women’s T20 World Cup record for most runs in a single edition, surpassing Beth Mooney’s record of 259 runs in 2020, with potentially two more matches left to play.England’s opening batsmen survived on two early occasions. He was dropped behind the stumps before even opening the account and was given another life when he missed a stumping opportunity on 13.His half-century was completed in just 33 balls. She made a match-winning partnership of 128 runs in 80 balls with Sophia Dunkley, who remained unbeaten on 49 runs in 38 balls with the help of nine fours. Dunkley is England’s second-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 120 runs.

Despite a solid start, New Zealand fell behind

New Zealand chose to bat first and made a strong start with an opening partnership of 70 runs between Isabella Gaze and Mellie Kerr.But the momentum of the innings was lost when Gage, Kerr and Izzy Sharp were out within four balls. Brooke Halliday and Sophie Devine added 74 runs before being dismissed in the same over.Maddy Green and Suzie Bates tried to finish strongly, but New Zealand’s total proved far short of the total required against England’s powerful batting line-up.

End of an era for New Zealand

With this defeat, the international careers of Sophie Devine, Suzie Bates and fast bowler Lee Tahuhu also came to an end.The trio signed after making almost 900 international appearances combined for New Zealand.