The SA women's cricket team are preparing for a semi-final clash against the tournament hosts.
Proteas captain Laura Wolvaardt has lost a bit of form at the Women’s T20 World Cup in England. Picture: Sameera Peiris/Getty Images
Laura Wolvaardt is confident she will find her form ahead of the knockout stage of the Women’s T20 World Cup taking place in England.
The Proteas women’s skipper is normally among the leading run-scorers in any tournament, but has manged to score just 117 runs so far in five knocks at the tournament.
Wolvaardt is down in 21st place on the run-scorers list, with a best of 45.
Team-mates Tazmin Brits (174 from three innings), Annerie Dercksen (138 from five innings) and Marizanne Kapp (119 from five innings) are ahead of Wolvaardt in the run-scorers list.
South Africa, having won four of their five matches, finished second in their group and take on hosts, England, in the second semi-final at the Oval in London on Thursday. The first semi-final is between Australia, who’ve gone unbeaten, and the West Indies, also at the Oval, on Tuesday.
‘Feeling alright in the nets’
“I’ve been a little frustrated,” admitted Wolvaardt about her form.
“Coming into this tournament I felt really good, so I’m kind of annoyed to have lost it along the way a bit.
Maybe I’ve been forcing it a bit too much, and not letting the ball come to me and playing my normal game. I’ve not been timing it like I should.”
The generally prolific run-scorer added she wasn’t too concerned about not scoring big runs just yet at the tournament.
“Hopefully some rhythm comes back. I’ve been feeling alright in the nets, and just need a few shots and then it’ll come back.”
Regarding the challenge of facing the hosts in Thursday’s semi-final, Wolvaardt singled out their batters as a focus area.
“They’re looking very good. A lot of their batters are in good form, but at the same time we’ve had the upperhand in knockout games in recent tournaments,” said the skipper.
“If we play a good game of cricket we can beat anyone on our day.”
Wolvaardt though said “cricket is a funny game sometimes”, alluding to last year’s 50 overs World Cup clash in India against England where in group play the Proteas were bowled out for 69 inside 21 overs and lost by 10 wickets, but then scored 319/7 and won by 125 runs in the semi-final against the same team.
