Proteas opening batter Laura Wolvaardt hopes the “runs will come” for her when it matters most at the Women’s T20 World Cup.
The 23-year-old has yet to fire at the tournament, with scores of 18, 13 and 19 against Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia respectively.
“It’s never nice not making runs, especially at a home tournament,” Wolvaardt said ahead of the Proteas’ must-win final group match against Bangladesh at Newlands on Tuesday.
“It’s supposed to be a very special time for me, so to not be making runs is frustrating but at the end of the day, I feel I am still hitting the ball pretty well in the nets, so I just need to stay calm and trust that the runs will come when they need to.”
New Zealand’s victory against Sri Lanka in Paarl on Sunday kept the Proteas in semi-final contention. If the hosts win on Tuesday, they will qualify for the playoffs ahead of the Kiwis and Sri Lanka on net run rate.
“A lot of us feel really fortunate to be in this position and to still have a chance to qualify for the semi-finals,” Wolvaardt said.
“Obviously it’s a vital game for us tomorrow so we are just trying to stay really focused on that and keep focusing on our processes.
“The last game [against Australia] didn’t go exactly how we would have liked but we are just going to stick to our plans and hopefully, we can execute them better tomorrow.”
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Having lost their opening match of the tournament against Sri Lanka at Newlands, the Proteas are hoping for a better performance in the Mother City on Tuesday.
“We didn’t bat well in that game,” said Wolvaardt. “We lacked partnerships up front and didn’t have that set batter who was batting long and through the innings. So that is our main focus for tomorrow, just to keep building those partnerships.
“Overall, it was quite a nice wicket to bat on [against Sri Lanka] so we just need to apply ourselves and hopefully it will turn out better tomorrow.”
Tuesday’s match will start at 19:00 and be broadcast on the SuperSport Grandstand and Cricket channels.
