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South Africa went down to Team India in the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 on Sunday at the DY Patil Stadium despite a valiant effort from the Protea women as the hosts limited the visitors to 246 during their chase of 299 runs.
Laura Wolvaardt’s incredible ton ultimately went in vain as India picked up a 52-run triumph but the SA skipper opted to take positives from the campaign.
“It’s unfortunate to be on the losing side today, but I’m sure we’ll definitely grow from this as a group,” the opener said.
“I think we did so well to put those couple of bad games behind us. We were either really good or really bad, but thankfully there was a lot more really good throughout this tournament,” she said reflecting on the side’s fight back to the summit
clash at the quadrennial event.
“There were so many different players stepping up. It’s been an amazing tournament for a lot of them, and I’m just really proud of the resilience we showed to make it all the way to the final,” she said.
Wolvaardt, who also posted an incredible 150-run knock in the semifinal of the event, revealed that compartmentalising the role of serving as a skipper and playing as a batter helped her focus better.
“I probably didn’t have my best year leading into the World Cup, and I didn’t start this tournament too well either. Maybe I was overthinking things early on. So I just tried to separate the two – the captaincy and the batting – and that freed me up towards the back end to play my natural game and then focus on leadership separately,” the 26-year-old said.
“We were hoping for a little bit more early on, but I still think it was the right call. There was something in the wicket. We stayed in the chase for a long time – just lost a few too many wickets at key stages. that was brilliant,” she said reflecting on her decision to bowl first after winning the toss.
“I kept checking the scoreboard and they were definitely tracking for 350. That back-end bowling effort was amazing. We’ve been really good at closing out innings throughout the tournament. I think 300 was about par on that wicket, and we genuinely believed we could chase it,” Wolvaardt explained.
Wolvaardt added that Shafali Verma’s game-changing spell took the Protea women by surprise and lauded the Indian youngster’s match-winning showing in the championship clash.
“Definitely her bowling. Especially with the ball early on, but she batted excellently too. That’s just the way she plays – aggressive, fearless – and when it comes off like today, she can really hurt teams.”
Wolvaardt also paid tribute to Marizanne Kapp, who played in her fifth WC this time around, and heaped praise on her influence on women’s cricket.
“She’s been absolutely phenomenal through so many editions of this tournament. It’s really sad that this might be her last one. The whole group wanted to win it for her. She’s been such a huge figure in South African cricket – honestly like having two players in one. We’re just so lucky she’s on our team,” she signed off.
