Wolvaardt out to 'silence' Indian crowd in World Cup Final showdown
Media release
Laura Wolvaardt believes the weight of expectation on India to win the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 on home soil can work to South Africa’s advantage.
The two sides will meet in Navi Mumbai for Sunday’s global showpiece with the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy expected to be a sea of blue.
However, Wolvaardt, whose remarkable 169 laid the foundations for her country’s 125-run over England in the first semi-final, is confident her team can fly under the radar on their way to a maiden World Cup title.
“Hopefully we win. I guess that will silence the India fans,” said the South Africa captain when asked how her side would deal with the crowd.
“It's going to be a very tough game with the whole crowd behind India in probably a sold-out stadium. It's going to be a very exciting opportunity but at the same time I think it puts a lot of pressure on them as well.
They have the whole country behind them and are sort of expected to win. Hopefully, that will play into our favour.”
Despite reaching the final, South Africa have not had things all their own way during this World Cup, bookending their group stage campaign by being bowled out for just 69 and 97 against England and Australia respectively.
But despite those batting performances which led to heavy defeats, Wolvaardt’s outfit responded in style at the first time of asking following both losses, beating New Zealand after their defeat to England before dismantling Nat Sciver-Brunt’s charges in the last four straight after failing to make three figures against the defending champions.
“Coming back from those games [was more of] a mental switch than something we've done in training,” Wolvaardt continued.
“We don't just lose our skill or gain our skill overnight. [They were} definitely just a couple of games that we had to put behind us, and we were able to bounce back really well from those two games on both occasions.
“[Head coach] Mandla [Mashimbyi] has been awesome with that. We’ve taken the positives and taken the learnings out of those games while at the same time, we haven’t dwelled on the 69 all out. I think if we had focused too much on that, it wouldn't have been a good campaign for us.”
Wolvaardt also paid tribute to teammate Marizanne Kapp for her exploits in getting South Africa to the final.
The 35-year-old is South Africa’s joint-leading wicket taker at this World Cup with 12 and her return of five for 20 – which included two wickets in the opening over – was pivotal in ensuring England got nowhere near their target of 320 on Wednesday.
“[Kapp] is probably one of the hardest workers in the side, probably hits the most balls, does the most prep, which is saying something for how good she is,” added Wolvaardt, who is the competition’s leading run scorer with 470. “She probably doesn't need to do half of that work because she's so talented.
“She's two players in one. I think she could probably play for any side in the world as a batter or as just a bowler. We're very lucky to have her and then experience wise, she obviously has all the knowledge in the world.”
ENDS