20 February - Cape Town - South Africa player Laura Wolvaardt pre-match press conference
[Reporter]
Just wanted to ask how was the team environment yesterday when you were keeping track of the New Zealand game as a team? How was it?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Yeah, I was following it on my phone. I think if I was watching it, I'd be a bit too stressed out, but obviously very happy with how that result went. But we still have a big job to do tomorrow.
[Reporter]
Also, I know the crowds are so far for you because South African games have always gotten a good amount of crowd in the stadium. Do you expect the same tomorrow as well, given it being such an important game?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Yeah, the crowds have been amazing and all of them have been very different, which is cool. The crowd at PE was really loud and there was the live band there, so that was awesome. I think tomorrow there'll be lots of people again. Obviously, it's my home ground at Newlands, so the vibe is going to be incredible and I can't wait. It's an important game as well, so it's going to be great to have the home crowd behind us.
[Reporter]
Just got two questions. Laura, good day. Obviously, must win for you, for you ladies against Bangladesh, how's the meeting cap in the moment and what has been spoken about in preparation for this upcoming fixture?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Yeah, I think a lot of us feel really fortunate to be in this position and to be able to still have a chance to qualify for semi-finals. Obviously, it's a vital game for us tomorrow, so we're just trying to stay really focused on that and just keep focusing on our processes. Obviously, I think the last game didn't go exactly how we liked, but we're just going to stick to our plans and hopefully we can execute them better tomorrow.
[Reporter]
And then the last one, on a more personal note, obviously, it was addressed last week. Unfortunately, we missed out on that. I mean, are you disappointed or, I mean, what are your thoughts on that one?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Yeah, it's obviously an incredible tournament to be a part of. I think any cricketer in the world would want to be there. But yeah, I guess I'm still very young and I still have a lot of areas in my game that I want to improve. So, I'm looking forward to a month off to work on those things and hopefully try again next year.
[Reporter]
Firstly, all the best for tomorrow's game against Bangladesh, which is very crucial for your team to qualify for the semi-finals. Do you think feeling extra pressure as a host nation has backfired South Africa in this World Cup considering you are coming from a tri-series win over India?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
I don't think so. I think if anything, the home crowd has helped us a bit. It's been incredible to be out there with the atmosphere we've gotten at some of the games to have thousands of people cheering when we were scoring runs or taking wickets. I think it's helped us quite a bit. I think obviously being the host nation, there's always a little bit of extra pressure. But for me personally, it was really special to have all of my family and friends in the crowd. And yeah, I enjoyed it.
[Reporter]
Yeah, my second question is that your team has already played one game at Cape Town in this World Cup against Sri Lanka where you lost the game by just three runs. So, what are the learnings from that game that you will look to apply in tomorrow's game against Bangladesh?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Yeah, I think obviously we didn't bat very well in that game. I think we lacked partnerships up front and kind of didn't have that set batter that was batting long and through in the innings. So that's sort of our main focus for tomorrow is just to keep building those partnerships. I think overall, it was quite a nice wicket to bat on. So, we just need to apply ourselves and hopefully it'll turn out better tomorrow.
[Reporter]
I see you must actually be hoping for a lackaday with the batter. I know you did not make a lot of runs thus far. Is that maybe something that you are actually worried about or –
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Yeah, well, it's never nice not making runs, especially at a home tournament. It's supposed to be a very special time for me. So, to not be making runs is a bit frustrating. But I think at the end of the day, I feel I'm still hitting the ball pretty well in the net. So, I just need to stay calm and trust that the runs will come when they need to.
[Reporter]
At the last World Cup, you batted in the middle order and you did a lot of work to be successful there in terms of your power game and everything else transferring from the opening. Where do you prefer to bat?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
I don't really mind. I feel both of them are different and both of them have sort of their pros and cons to me. I'm really enjoying the opportunity to be at the top of the order. I don't think that's why I've not been scoring runs, because most of my dismissals have come after the power play. So yeah, I enjoy both of them. I'm just looking forward to hopefully having more opportunities at the top of the order and hopefully make the position mine going forward.
[Reporter]
And Laura, just heading into tomorrow's game and a potential semi-final, do you feel like you said, playing at your home ground, do you feel that it's all primed up, your career is basically pointing to this direction, like it's tomorrow night's the quarterfinal, possibly a semi-final and the finals, everything leading up to this particular point in your career?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Yeah, obviously, it's a massive game. Probably one of the more important games of my career. Thanks for reminding me. But no, I think it'll be awesome to just play in front of my family and friends will be there. So, the vibe will be incredible. And we just need to stay calm and do what we do well. And hopefully it'll go our way.
[Reporter]
So last week after the Sri Lanka game, Chloe was just talking about what needed to be done to get to continue with the tournament. And obviously, now you just have tomorrow's match and then the semi-finals, just in terms of the kind of conversations you are having, especially maybe the batting line-up. What are the sorts of conversations you maybe are having that you can let us know about?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Well, I think obviously, we haven't really hit all straps as a batting unit so far in this tournament. So, I don't think it's necessarily our plans that are wrong. I think we've just lacked in execution in some of the games. So yeah, we're just trying to speak about having that intent when we're batting and to keep rotating and looking to score.
Yeah, I think we have the talent and we just need to stay calm tomorrow and execute and we'll come right.
[Reporter]
Just in terms of when you talked about the pressure, how worried are you about possibly not making the semi-finals, if at all?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Obviously, always a little worried. I think as a home nation, you'll want to play in a semi-final. So obviously, tomorrow's a really big game, but we can't really think further than that just yet. We kind of still have a job to do tomorrow. So that's mostly what our focus is, is just on Bangladesh and what we need to do to beat them.
[Reporter]
My question to you is, do you think batting has been a major disappointment for South Africa considering the highest score has been just 132 or where do you think has the team gone wrong so far in the World Cup?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
I wouldn't call it a major disappointment because we are in a position to make the semi-finals. So, I think if we do find ourselves in this position, we must be doing something right along the line. But yeah, I think obviously, we're not batting as well as what we would like. But we're pretty clear on where we've gone wrong and what we need to do to fix it. It's just about executing that tomorrow against their spinners.
[Reporter]
Kind of a follow up on what you asked, the move back up to the top of the order. Can you give us an insight into why that was done, given that you'd had the success that you did in the middle as a finisher in Australia?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Well, I think I've been an opener for most of my life, I open in ODIs and it goes pretty well for me. So, I think the plan initially when they moved me down was always that I was going to sort of open one day when I was ready and sort of had developed my skills enough to move back. And I think we have a lot of really great batters who are really good in the middle. So, I didn't mind the change at all. I'm just not executing at the moment. But yeah, if I'd score runs, I think it would be a different conversation. So, I'm happy with where I'm batting.
[Reporter]
Just on the follow up on executing, Sune was very clear about what the brand is that you guys wanted to play. It has to be 100 percent attacking cricket, she called it, because that's the way the game is going. What have you isolated is the is the problem in terms of you guys executing to enable you to play the brand? Why aren't you able to execute to enable yourself to play the brand?
[Laura Wolvaardt]
Yeah, I agree that the way the game is moving, you have to be a bit more attacking, especially up front. And I think it's just been not summing up conditions quickly enough, maybe some of the games. But at the end of the day, we need to stick to what we're trying to do and stick to an attacking brand of cricket and it's T20 cricket. Some days it's going to work out and some days it's not going to work out -