The SA team open their campaign on Friday against England in their first league stage match in Guwahati.
Motivated by the national men’s team winning the World Test Championship earlier this year, Proteas women’s captain Laura Wolvaardt says her side are ready to hit their straps as they set their sights on South Africa’s first global limited overs title at the Women’s Cricket World Cup.
The SA women’s team open their campaign on Friday against four-time champions England in their first league stage match in Guwahati (11.30am start).
And after seeing the support the Proteas men received from SA fans after beating Australia in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June, Wolvaardt said the women’s squad were pumped to get going.
“Obviously the men winning that World Test Championship was amazing. It’s been awesome to see how the country has supported them and to see how excited everyone was back home and sort of united to support them,” the skipper said.
“So hopefully we have the chance to do something similar to really get the country behind us in this tournament and do something special.”
Showing good form
The Proteas women have won two ODI series in the last few months, against West Indies and Pakistan (both away from home), and Wolvaardt was pleased with their build-up to the tournament.
She was confident they could hit back, after losing to England in the penultimate round of the last two 50-over World Cups, by beating their opponents and building momentum in the early stages of the tournament.
“We’re very excited to get going. England are a really strong side but we enjoy playing against them in World Cups,” Wolvaardt said.
“They’ve beaten us in the semifinals at the last two editions of this tournament, so we’re really keen to get a good start against them.
“Being able to beat a team like that early on really sets the tone for the competition. I think we’ve got a really strong group of players here and we’ve really prepared well, so we’re really looking forward to this game.”
Ready to go
Looking ahead, Wolvaardt felt they could go all the way in an attempt to lift the nation’s first World Cup cricket trophy.
“I think we know if we play our best cricket we can beat any side in the world,” she said.
“We’ve played some good cricket recently, we’ve been batting really well, and we’ve been bowling better and better.”
