South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt is hoping that her side can use Temba Bavuma and his men’s World Test Championship triumph as inspiration for a special outing in the Women’s World Cup this year. South Africa ended their long wait for an ICC trophy with the win over Australia at Lord’s earlier this year to finally end their jinx.
The South African women’s team has reached the finals of the last two ICC events and are aiming to get over the finish line this time around. Speaking to the reporters ahead of their opening clash against England, Wolvaardt said that it was amazing to see the country unite to celebrate South Africa’s win in the WTC final and hoping they can do something similar as well.
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“Yeah, obviously, the men winning that World Test Championship is awesome. It’s been amazing to see how the country has supported them and how excited everyone was back at home and united to support them in that trophy. So, yeah, hopefully we have the chance to do something similar to really get the country behind us in this tournament. And, yeah, hopefully we can do something special,” said Wolvaardt.
‘We can beat anyone in the world’
South Africa face England in their first game, a team they haven’t had the best of memories against. They have been beaten by England in the semi-final stages in the last two ODI World Cups. Wolvaardt feels that her side can beat any team in the world if they’re playing at their best and is hoping they can stick to their plans against England.
“It’s a bit of a tricky one because I feel like we’ve beaten them in the group stages in the past World Cups and then lots of them in the semifinal. So we know as a group, we can beat them, especially in the group stages. I think we know that if we play our best cricket, we can beat any side in the world. We’ve played some good cricket recently. We’ve been batting really well. We’ve been bowling better and better. I think all of us know that if we really stick to our plans and are really clear with what we want to do, that we can beat them tomorrow,” said Wolvaardt.
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