NEWS
Follow UsSouth Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt feels that her team played their best game one match too early, as they failed to win the title at the T20 World Cup 2024 in Dubai on October 20 (Sunday).
“Cricket is just a bit random sometimes. Sometimes you have your best game and I think we played our best game a couple of days too early and we were beaten on the day today,” Wolvaardt said in the post-match press conference after the final against New Zealand.
This was the second final loss in a row for the Rainbow Nation, and for the skipper, Wolvaardt, this one hurts the most.
“I think last year we were just really excited to be in the final. It was our first one and we really enjoyed the opportunity. But this year after the cricket we played in the semi, I really thought we would have it in the bag if we played another game of a similar nature.
"Just to play probably one of our worst games in the tournament, to be honest, in the final was a bit disappointing,” explained Wolvaardt, after she was asked which loss was more disappointing between the one at home in 2023 at the hands of Australia or this one.
Talking about the turning point in the match, Wolvaardt pointed out the overs after the powerplay during the chase. After being 47/0 in the powerplay, South Africa ended up being 70/3 at the end of 11 overs, losing three wickets for 23 runs in the five-over period. They were chasing a daunting 159 to win.
“Overs 7 to 10 or 11, I think we fell flat a bit. I think we only went at fours or something in that phase. And then after that, we needed 10s for the last 10, which was quite a big ask,” said the 25-year-old.
Was choosing to bowl first after winning the toss a mistake, not according to Wolvaardt, at least.
“It worked for us the whole tournament and we were pretty good in chasing and all the ground stats also say chase and it's supposed to get better under lights. So, I still think back to that decision. I think we just let them get too many with the bowling,” she reasoned.
Though it was disappointing to lose back-to-back finals in the T20 World Cup, the South African captain was still able to find positives for her young team.
“We still came second in a tournament with 10-odd teams. To be able to make the finals with a younger group I think is very promising. I can't wait to see what we do in the next couple of World Cups. Reaching two back-to-back finals as well shows that we're doing something right,” added the leading run-scorer of the tournament.
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