Laura Wolvaardt wanted the caveats on record before anyone admired the numbers. She had, in her words, “the best of conditions, won all the tosses, was able to chase under lights in the first four games and batted first today on a slow-ish wicket”. Even so, four 50-plus scores – one of them a century – in five T20Is against India speak for themselves.
The 330 runs she managed are the most by any woman in a bilateral T20I series. It is only April, yet in 13 knocks this year she has already closed to within 240 runs of the calendar-year record. A World Cup in June and a home summer sit invitingly on the horizon.
“I am very happy with my form at the moment,” Wolvaardt said after the final match in Benoni. “After a tough tour to New Zealand, it’s been really nice to turn it around. I can’t really tell you what’s changed that much. That’s the funny thing about cricket. In New Zealand, I was 9 off 16 in the one game and today I’m batting quite a lot better and don’t really know why.”
What has certainly helped is a return to her usual role at the very top. The temporary experiment at No.3 in New Zealand left South Africa light on early stability; just one fifty-plus opening stand in five outings. Reinstated as opener, Wolvaardt has already overseen two century partnerships and another worth 75 in only three attempts. “Maybe lacked a bit in the partnerships department,” she admitted of the final game, where six wickets fell for 49.
Partnerships are the obvious headache. Tazmin Brits has not passed 30 in seven innings, Anneke Bosch has stalled below 20 in six, and only Sune Luus managed another half-century across the series. Marizanne Kapp is expected to be fully fit for the World Cup and, on paper, a line-up featuring Kapp, Annerie Dercksen, Kayla Reyneke, Chloe Tryon and Nadine de Klerk should not lean so heavily on one player. Reality remains different.
“There’s still a few areas we can be a bit better in so I’m excited to work on that for the next month,” Wolvaardt added. Fielding is one of them. A handful of straightforward chances went down, most memorably in Kimberley when Shafali Verma was reprieved twice inside the powerplay and made South Africa pay.
Head coach Hilton Moreeng – quietly pleased at the bowling group’s discipline, less so at the cordon’s conversion rate – was blunt afterwards. “You cannot give two lives to top-order players at this level and expect to get away with it,” he said. “The World Cup will punish lapses even harder.”
The bowling unit has made strides. Ayabonga Khaka’s new-ball accuracy hauled her six wickets at 15s, while Nonkululeko Mlaba’s left-arm spin conceded fewer than six an over. Yet the balance of the XI is unsettled: three keepers are vying for one spot, Tryon’s return from a back strain has been cautious, and de Klerk’s death-over role is still in trial phase.
South Africa, then, leave the India series with conflicting emotions: heartened by their captain’s purple patch but wary of being found out if that well runs dry. Luus, who has worked with Wolvaardt since age-group cricket, summed it up neatly. “Laura’s form is unreal. The rest of us need to take a leaf – maybe a whole chapter – from her book.”
There is time, but not much. A short camp in Pretoria precedes two warm-ups in Bangladesh before the squad heads to Chennai for the World Cup proper. The equation is not overly complicated: hold more catches, string bigger stands, and lighten the load on a batter currently carrying almost everything.
Wolvaardt, for her part, shows no sign of asking for less responsibility. She simply asks for company.
