Semi-final hero Finn Allen said New Zealand’s thumping demi-final win over South Africa was a “huge confidence booster” ahead of going for their maiden T20 World Cup title in Sunday’s final.

Opener Allen hit the fastest-ever T20 World Cup century, off 33 balls, to give his side a crushing nine-wicket win over South Africa and set up a final against India or England in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

Allen blasted 10 fours and eight sixes as New Zealand raced to their victory target of 170 with 7.1 overs to spare at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.

It was a bruising defeat for 2024 runners-up South Africa, who had been unbeaten in the tournament.

“They fight hard, they come hard at us, they’ve got good tall, fast bowlers and it makes it challenging for us,” Allen said of Aiden Markram’s South Africa.

“Their boys hit the ball hard, so to get one over them is a huge confidence booster for us going into Sunday. They’ve been the in-form team the whole tournament.”

The Auckland-born Allen rose to the occasion in the knockout match after ordinary outings in the tournament apart from his unbeaten 84 against the UAE in a group fixture.

Allen said his heroics in India would have kept his parents and the nation awake to cheer the team.

“I’m sure my parents are up watching the whole game. Hopefully they’re proud.

“But I think as a nation, I think hopefully everyone gets behind us and rallies around us for Sunday,” said Allen.

The final will begin at around 2.30am on Monday in New Zealand.

“Obviously, difficult time for people to watch back home but I’m sure people were keeping tabs on the game and hopefully they can get up and have a Monday off at work and watch the final.”

Allen put on 117 with opening partner Tim Seifert, who made 58, to pummel the opposition attack that included high-quality pacemen Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi.

‘Best seat in the house’

Seifert was the early aggressor as he raced to 41 off 21 balls before Allen took over and finished with two fours, two sixes and a four to raise his hundred and seal victory.

Allen said batting with Seifert makes life easy.

“He’s in incredible form, he’s an incredible player and I think he’s just showing the world what he can do,” said Allen.

“And I think that makes it easy for me to sit back and have the best seat in the house. So, yeah, it’s good fun batting with Timmy.”

New Zealand squeaked into the semi-finals on net run-rate ahead of Pakistan and lost to South Africa by seven wickets in the group stage.

But Allen said a five-match T20 series in India that the visitors lost 4-1 ahead of the World Cup prepared them for the grind.

“I think it shows the importance of that India series that the boys played before the World Cup,” he said.

“Five games on all black soil (pitches) and I think it just shows that as a team we get up for the fight (in) those important fixtures.”

A number of prominent basketball coaches, including NBA champions Steve Kerr and Doc Rivers, signed a public letter released Wednesday contending that political interference in universities threatens to undermine college athletics.

“College sports unite us as a nation, drawing out team spirit and shared values of fair play,” the letter said. “Campuses – big and small, public and private, two- and four-year – are a bedrock foundation for the role sports play in American life. Protecting university independence safeguards this proud tradition.”

Kerr and Rivers are joined in signing the letter by former coaches Jim Boeheim and Muffet McGraw (both of whom have won NCAA basketball titles), former Michigan coach John Beilein, Harvard coach and former Duke All-American Tommy Amaker, and Phil Martelli, who coached perennial NCAA tournament teams at St. Joseph’s. Head men’s basketball coach James Jones of Yale and Judith Sweet, the first woman elected as president of the NCAA, are also among the signees for the group.

The coaches and other athletic administrators who signed the letter said that political interference harms university culture, and that includes college athletics. They point to cuts to funding for research, censorship, intimidation of university leaders and faculty and having federal officers deployed to college campuses as examples of that interference.

“Right now, at both the federal and state levels, acts of political interference threaten the independence of our colleges and universities,” the letter said.

The letter asks that leaders and fans of college sports urge elected officials to support academic independence.

“When students are afraid to speak their minds, they cannot give their all,” the coaches wrote. “When campuses are polarized, it’s hard to maintain the ‘one team’ spirit we instill in the locker room. Unprecedented political pressure on colleges and universities undercuts the values we have sought to instill in student-athletes.”

The letter is on the website of Stand For Campus Freedom, an organization that describes itself as a nonpartisan project “that holds universities accountable to their highest ideals, resists political coercion and strengthens America’s leadership on the world stage.”

The United States women’s national team’s 1-0 victory over Canada on Wednesday was not as dominant of a display as eight months ago, when the Americans ran their northern neighbors off the pitch in Washington, D.C. It was, however, an equally important benchmark for the Americans as they turn the corner toward the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

Experimentation and inexperience have been the operative words for the USWNT over the past year as head coach Emma Hayes trotted out new players — 32 debuts awarded in her first 32 games in charge heading into this tournament. But Wednesday, and this SheBelieves Cup, have been about refinement — about depth and maturity developing before the world’s eyes.

“It was one of my favorite performances, because they’re growing up,” Hayes said of her team after Wednesday’s victory.

Forward Ally Sentnor scored the game’s lone goal 10 minutes into the second half on Wednesday, taking advantage of her start in the wide-open battle for the USWNT’s No. 9 role. She now has three goals in four games this calendar year.

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Sentnor was one of the USWNT’s starters with the most to prove on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, as Hayes aims to figure out who she can rely on as the 2027 World Cup creeps closer. She earned Hayes’ praise after the game for a wise performance.

Sentnor nearly scored in the first half on corner kick setup identical to the one that led to her goal. She also led the USWNT’s waves of successful high pressure that forced mistakes from Canada, and that pressure led to Sentnor creating a one-on-one opportunity moments before half-time.

She missed that shot at the near post, but Hayes’ noted the forward’s resolve in forgetting about the mistake and burying her goal shortly after halftime.

Gisele Thompson also started at fullback for the USWNT and was asked to frequently join the attack in another major cap early in the 20-year-old’s career. Thompson went the full 90 minutes for the second time in four days, which Hayes said was intentional because she told Thompson that she needs to be more durable to play regularly for the USWNT.

Thompson and Sentnor were two of four changes from the U.S. lineup that beat Canada 3-0 last July. Wednesday’s USWNT was imperfect, especially in the first half, when the Americans looked disconnected in the final third and failed to capitalize on the pressure that they successfully applied high up the field. There were errors in the back too early on, which allowed Canada to briefly build confidence.

There was a mature undertone to the USWNT’s win on Wednesday, however. Canada’s struggles to create opportunities aside, the USWNT had the mark of a team on a journey from what has felt like open tryouts to a more established group that is finding the best version of itself in a tournament setting.

Hayes offered a peek into this vision the day before the game, when she gushed about the progress of Emma Sears.

Sears was a second-round pick in the 2024 NWSL Draft by Racing Louisville FC who wasn’t on many radars to be a breakout professional, let alone international.

It was around the time of that Canada game last year that Hayes spoke about the progress that she needed to see from Sears. Ahead of Wednesday’s rematch against Canada, Hayes said she just told Sears this week that if the World Cup started today, she would be one of the first players off the bench.

Sears entered Wednesday’s match in the 69th minute and almost immediately progressed the ball from penalty box to penalty box to earn a corner kick. The question for Sears and several teammates is now less about whether they will make the roster and more about how much and in which scenarios they will play.

Sears, for example, now has 16 caps for the USWNT; Sentnor has 17 caps.

They, along with the likes of budding midfielder Claire Hutton — who started again on Wednesday, as she did against Canada in July — blended in well with the established players like midfielders Sam Coffey and Rose Lavelle, and defender Naomi Girma. Alyssa Thompson, one of the in-betweeners who isn’t new but isn’t a veteran, continued to be dynamic and dangerous on the wing.

Just like last July, Lavelle was electric in the middle of the park on Wednesday. She was such a menacing force that Canada coach Casey Stoney admitted Lavelle was the reason that Canada needed to change its shape to two holding midfielders.

Lavelle, whose international breakout came in the SheBelieves Cup nearly a decade ago, is now the 30-year-old veteran in the squad. She has had her best (and healthiest) year in recent memory since returning from ankle surgery last spring.

“Everybody respects Rose for so many reasons, and I love that she is leaning into being this [leader] too, because the team needs it,” Hayes said. “If you think about the players from Ally Sentnor to Gisele — even Alyssa, Claire Hutton — they are really progressing, their maturity is developing because of players like Rose ensuring that they feel the high challenge of the environment, but most importantly the high challenge of veteran leadership.”

Hayes might have rolled out her best available lineup on Wednesday, give or take a player. It was a mix of newly minted veterans and young players who are mostly now trying to prove that they can handle games like this — tournament soccer on short rest against a solid opponent.

The Americans comfortably saw out the 1-0 victory with no signs of panic or fatigue in sight. That resolve, as much as the victory or any set piece success, will have Hayes smiling her way to New Jersey for Saturday’s SheBelieves Cup finale against Colombia. It will also bring her one step closer to a clearer vision of what next year’s World Cup team might look like.