'I think we’re in a good space,' says Proteas Women's captain Wolvaardt after taking up the reigns
'I think we’re in a good space,' says Proteas Women's captain Wolvaardt after taking up the reigns
A perfect win after a perfect performance from the Proteas Women to level matters against Australia in Sydney on 7 February 2024. Picture: @ProteasWomenCSA on X
JOHANNEBSURG - Proteas Women's captain Laura Wolvaardt applauded her teammates for the progress they’ve made since she took over as the team’s skipper.
The Proteas ended their summer of cricket in Potchefstroom on Wednesday with a disappointing 6 wicket loss against Sri Lanka in the 3rd and final ODI of the series.
Wolvaardt’s Sri Lankan counterpart Chamari Athapaththu led from the front, hitting a career best 195* as her team completed the highest run chase in women’s ODI history – reaching 305/4 in 44.3 overs to level the series at 1-1 after the first game was washed out.
Earlier, Wolvaardt’s own career best of184* helped the home side to a seemingly imposing 301/5.
Despite the loss, which Wolvaardt admitted was difficult to stomach, she was pleased with how they’ve handled the loss of Proteas greats like Dane van Niekerk, Lizelle Lee, Trisha Chetty and Shabnim Ismail over the last two years.
“I think we’re in a good space. Obviously, when I took over, we had a very young group, had a lot of people retiring in a short span of time and now we’ve had some good youngsters getting some good exposure to international cricket. I think a lot of standout players like Nadine [De Klerk] have been brilliant for us this past season, with the bat and the ball, whereas the season before she was spending most of the time on the bench. We’ve found a lot of gems like that,” Wolvaardt said.
Wolvaardt has completed her first summer in charge of the team and says while captaincy has its difficult moments, like last night's game, she says she’s becoming more comfortable in her leadership role as time goes on and that it has made her a better player.
“Yeah, it [captaincy] has helped me as a batter. I think I’m starting to look at the game from a different angle. Now I have to think about bowling plans and where my bowlers are gonna bowl. In a way, it’s helping me plan my innings. I also feel like I’m batting more for what the team needs and not necessarily for my own game and my own stats,” she said.
Wolvaardt has had successful time in charge as she was named the Player of the Series in the drawn ODI series against Sri Lanka, where she hit 2 centuries in 3 games. She also oversaw the team’s first ever wins in T20s and ODIs against Australia in February and ODI series wins against New Zealand and Bangladesh.