Woolvardt hails ‘excellent’ all-round South African display
Media release
South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt said she ‘could not have asked for much more’ from her side following their 80-run win over Scotland which took them top of Group B.
Wolvaardt was in fine touch with the bat, scoring a 27-ball 40 as part of a 64-run opening stand with Tazmin Brits (43) to lay the foundations for the Proteas.
A rapid 43 from Marizanne Kapp helped fire South Africa to 166 for five, the highest score of the tournament so far, before miserly bowling saw a winless Scotland side dismissed for 86 in reply.
“You can’t ask for much more, it was an excellent all-round performance,” Wolvaardt said.
“We had a great first half and followed it up with some very tight bowling.
“We spoke about (net run rate) coming into this game. It was a tough one at the toss – when you are chasing, you can go a bit harder if you know that’s a factor.
“We just felt the best chance to win the game was put a lot of runs on the board and restrict them. After that powerplay, we were definitely looking at 160 or 170.
“We got the runs on the board and we wanted to be ruthless, get out there and show what we are all about. We are very happy with how it went.”
Nonkululeko Mlaba led the way with the ball for South Africa, claiming three for 12, while Nadine de Klerk and Chloe Tryon chipped in with two wickets apiece.
Six of the Proteas’ seven bowlers claimed scalps and Wolvaardt is delighted to have such a varied attack to call upon.
“Every day has been different,” she said. “You can come in with all the plans in the world but so far every game has been slightly different to what we had planned.
“But it’s nice to have so many bowling options and all-round options – if it needs more pace, we can bring on Derks (Annerie Dercksen), if it needs more spin, we can bring on Sune (Luus). It’s really nice.”
Scotland have now been beaten in each of their three matches and face neighbours England in the final match of their maiden ICC Women’s T20 World Cup campaign on Sunday.
Only Katherine Fraser and Ailsa Lister made it into double figures with the bat while Scotland also paid for mistakes in the field, with Wolvaardt making them pay for dropping her on two.
“It’s just the little moments throughout the innings,” said captain Kathryn Bryce.
“There were a few chances we put down which were pretty costly in the end and meant we were chasing 160 rather than a par score of 140. We lost wickets early and really got behind in the game.
“When you’re not normally under this sort of pressure, it’s really difficult to execute under the most pressure a lot of the girls have ever been under.
“To execute that time and time again is something we’ll have to learn and get better at to compete in games like this.”
ENDS