Captain Laura Wolvaardt was at the peak of her powers in the fifth and final fixture of the T20I series against India. She guided South Africa to a convincing 23-run win and helped seal the series 4-1. Wolvaardt was lucky with the coin flip as she decided to post a total on the board.
She, alongside former captain Sune Luus, added 75 runs for the opening wicket and put the tourists under pressure from the outset. Luus struggled for fluency throughout the course of her innings. She scored a run-a-ball 23 before N Shree Charani put her out of her misery. While Wolvaardt held an end together, India’s bowlers ran through the others.
India came back into the contest as other South African batters failed to capitalise on the early momentum.Wicketkeeper Sinalo Jafta scored an unbeaten 16 at a strike rate of 200. Wolvaardt missed out on a well-deserved century as she finished unbeaten on 92. She batted at a strike rate of 164.28, including 11 fours and two sixes.
Laura Wolvaardt’s record-breaking performance
Wolvaardt took her series tally to 330 runs and broke Hayley Matthews’ world record for scoring the most runs (310) in a T20I bilateral series.Matthews had accumulated those runs across three innings during a bilateral series against Australia women in 2023.
India’s poor outing with the bat continues
In reply, India were three down for just 38 in 7.3 overs as the Proteas removed Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues and Anushka Sharma cheaply. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (22 off 28) and Bharti Fulmali (40 off 30) added 38 for the fourth wicket to bring some semblance of order in the middle overs.
But they too didn’t last long as South African bowlers clawed their way back into the contest. Wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh remained unbeaten on 25 off 15 as India only managed 132 for the loss of eight wickets.
