When Laura Wolvaardt said, “Not today!”

Even if you have seen Laura Wolvaardt bat, watch her again. And this time, try and look at how every single part of her body moves as she gets down to crunch a drive through the cover region. 

Everything is in sync and straight lines. It helps that the batter is tall and lanky as well. So when she brings down her bat, you can see how she is just a wonder of symmetry. It’s inevitable that the bat comes down straight and meets the ball, showing its full face. 

With such a disciplined and aesthetic batting technique, you would think that Wolvaardt would be acing whatever little Test cricket the Proteas women play. The truth ,however, couldn’t be more different than before this Test match in Chennai. 

In the two Tests she had played earlier at Taunton and Perth, she could score only 16, 16, 4, and 8 in her four innings at an average of 11. At the same time, she averages 49.38 in the ODIs and 31 in T20Is. 

Sure, the sample size is too small to analyse what she did wrong in her earlier Tests. But even that’s enough to indicate that Wolvaardt would never have faced the situation she experienced in Chennai before in her career. 

She wouldn’t have fielded and captained her side under that level of heat and humidity before. And certainly, she wouldn’t have an opposition scoring 600 plus in a single innings. 

Things became worse for her when she got out on a delivery pitched on a length that stayed just a bit low and turned in. In the first innings, Wolvaardt went for a pull when she could have easily negotiated that with a straight bat. She was plumb in front of the wicket. 

It was after her dismissal that South African batters, especially Anneke Bosch, Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp and Nadine de Klerk, showed exceptional resolve to stay on the crease and grind it out. De Klerk even counter-attacked in the first innings, scoring six boundaries. 

You could see Wolvaardt clapping away Luus and Kapp while sitting in the dugout with an emotionless face. You could see that she knew that it was possible for her to just stay at the crease, even when there was a mountain of runs to be scored. The question of a win was out of the way. It was about somehow holding India to a draw. 

After Sneh Rana’s hurricane blew away the Proteas for just 266, Wolvaardt got her chance to bat again the next day itself. And this time, she wasn’t letting anything go away. 

It all started with her nailing cover drives in the initial phase of the innings. As she continued the innings with Luus after Bosch departed early, her resolve to bat long became even more clear. 

That showed in the second session of Day 3 when Wolvaardt and Luus scored just 95 runs in 34 overs but, most importantly, returned unscathed. 

The Indians had been in the field for more than a day, and it was showing in their fielding woes and indisciplined lines. The Proteas' just-block-it-out approach probably enabled them to come out of the second session without conceding many more runs. 

By the third session, Wolvaardt had consumed more than a hundred deliveries and had already gotten used to the pitch's low bounce and slow pace. Harmanpreet somehow managed to break the 190-run partnership between the two, but Wolvaardt continued to bat. 

It was only on the last day, and after completing a splendid hundred, that Wolvaardt returned to the pavilion. Her 122 runs took 314 deliveries. That’s roughly 52 overs of batting! 

For a player who hadn’t even gone past 20 in the last five Test innings she played, to play out 314 deliveries is beyond exceptional. The reason is that South African women play absolutely no red-ball cricket at the domestic level. So it’s not like these skills are inbred in these players right from their age group cricket days. 

It was all temperament, class, and grit of the highest grade from the Proteas skipper that allowed her side to stretch the game until the very last hour of the last session of the last day. 

That level of brilliance is why she is the only woman on this planet to score centuries in all three formats in a single year—and guess what, there are six months still left in this year! 

Maybe this blockathon for the ages will push Cricket South Africa to give their women more red ball games, both at the domestic and international levels. That would be much greater than the win they failed to get in Chennai.

If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out — big time. Play Fantasy on Cricket.com NOW! Download the App here.