Wolvaardt proud of Proteas’ resilience

If the Proteas are to take the next and biggest step to become champions, then the sort of improvement shown by their captain Laura Wolvaardt is the perfect example for her teammates to follow.

Though disappointed with the outcome of Sunday’s final — a 52-run loss to India in front of a raucous audience in Mumbai — Wolvaardt said she was pleased with the toughness shown by her players but also her own growth as an international batter.

“The resilience we’re able to show has been big,” said Wolvaardt, whose side bounced back from being bowled out for 69 in their first match against England to reach the playoffs. Then in the game before their semifinal, they were bowled out for 97 by Australia but again showed their mental toughness to score 319/7 against the English.

“It’s been a great campaign. We’ll look back at this tournament with a lot of positives.

“We won five games in a row. We’ve been searching for that sort of consistency because we didn’t have that in [any] bilateral series.”

Wolvaardt also finished the tournament with an aggregate of 571 runs, a new record for the World Cup, eclipsing Alyssa Healy’s previous mark of 509 in the 2022 tournament.

“My ODI cricket has come a long way in this tournament. To win games you have to be positive and aggressive, and I think I’ve explored that in this tournament,” she said.

“It hasn’t been my best year in ODIs; I’ve been a bit too conservative and one-dimensional. I’m just happy with the different options I was able to bring in in this tournament. I scored a few legside boundaries [on Sunday night], which is something I’ve been working on.”

India’s bowlers executed their pre-game strategy perfectly against Wolvaardt, not giving her room outside off-stump and blocking off her favourite scoring region in the covers. But it’s a credit to her training in the past year that her leg-side play has improved to the extent that it has, while those extra hours in the gym have added power. Her 84m six over midwicket in the semifinal will have given her as much pleasure as any of her cover drives.

She believed South Africa were “right in the game” for most of Sunday’s run chase. After the start India were given by openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, who shared a partnership of 104; it looked like they would score much more than 298/7. “They were tracking towards 350,” said Wolvaardt.

But the Proteas bowlers — led by Ayabonga Khaka, who, after conceding 29 runs in her first three overs, gave up just 29 runs in her next six while picking up three wickets, and Nonkululeko Mlaba with 1/47 — slowed the momentum of the Indian innings.

“The back-end bowling was amazing.” South Africa conceded only 69 runs in the last 10 overs, and restricting India to a total under 300 was a major psychological victory. “We thought we could chase it.”

Wolvaardt certainly controlled the innings superbly. At no stage, even when South Africa lost wickets in clusters, did she panic.

“I thought my and [Annerie] Dercksen’s partnership was big, that we would take it through to the end, then she got out when we were trying to launch into the back 10 overs, I got out soon after, and even then I thought Chloe [Tryon] and Nades [de Klerk] could do it,” said Wolvaardt.

Her 101 came off only 98 balls and included 11 fours and a six, most of those shots coming on the leg side.

Ultimately the dropped catches, which included one by Wolvaardt; the soft dismissals that included two to Shafali’s part-time spin, which Wolvaardt described as frustrating; and the absence of any lengthy partnerships proved costly.

“We are a team consistently making it to finals now, whereas before it was a one-time thing. I’m proud we’ve reached three in a row.

“It shows we are doing something right domestically and from a squad perspective consistency-wise. Hopefully we can keep reaching finals, and one day we can win one,” said Wolvaardt.