Wolwaardt and Kapp: South Africa’s Ice and Fire as they showed their team now turns up when the pressure’s on.
Wolvaardt and Kapp sing South Africa’s song of ice and fire.
As she raised her bat to her first World Cup century and tenth overall in ODIs, Laura Wolvaardt appeared to be suppressing a smile. It might have been because there was still work to be done at 200 for 5 in the 40th over, but it’s more likely because that’s just her personality. concentrated. clinical. Someone who “likes my statistics and overthinks about cricket” should, in her words, “enjoy the good moments a bit more.” Someone who is icy cold, according to others.
Even though Marizanne Kapp has participated in five World Cups and more ODIs for South Africa than anyone else, she still breaks down in tears when she hears the national song. She even shed tears two days prior to the game because she had “one of the worst net sessions in the last 10 years of my career.” Something changes when you put a ball in the hand of that same softie. She destroys stumps, swings it, and steams in. Just fire.
As South Africa simmered and boiled before they froze England on their route to their first World Cup final, they were the ideal combination. Throughout the World Cup, the temperature has been a topic of discussion, and South Africa’s semi-final was ideal.
Put the past behind you because South Africa did. losing to the same team in the semifinals in 2017 and 2022? Unimportant. The majority of the players from those games are not present, the coaching staff is different, and other things have changed. Just 26 days ago, on the same pitch, against the same opponents, sixty-nine were out. irrelevant as well.
They have advanced to their third consecutive women’s final and their fifth consecutive final in all formats and genders (the World Test Championship final in 2025, the Under-19 Women’s World Cup final, and the T20 World Cup finals for both men and women in 2024). They have done so because their key players step up in crucial situations. No greater than Kapp, the top seam-bowling all-rounder in the world, and Wolvaardt, their top ODI run scorer.
Before this match, it’s safe to say that neither was dominating the World Cup discourse. In the group stage, Wolvaardt had scored three important half-centuries, but unlike finisher Nadine de Klerk, she had not made headlines. Wolvaardt described her opening partner Tazmin Brits as “carrying me” after she scored five hundreds this year, overshadowing her.
This innings may be as pivotal for Wolvaardt as Harmanpreet Kaur’s 171* against Australia in Derby in 2017. Wolvaardt is currently the World Cup’s top run scorer. It will be a once-in-a-generation achievement if it turns out to be the innings that sets South Africa up for the title, but whatever happens in the final is career-defining.
In the end, they want to give players like Kapp, who is likely playing in her final ODI World Cup even if she hasn’t stated it.
Everyone will discuss Kapp’s 5 for 20 numbers, particularly her opening over, and they ought to. At that point, South Africa had virtually won the match, and that might not have been Kapp’s most crucial move.
Her 33-ball 42 might have given South Africa’s innings a much-needed boost. And who knows what could have occurred if she hadn’t come back for a second spell and fired Nat Sciver-Brunt at a time when the England captain was beginning to raise red flags?
That’s why Kapp has always carried the fire, and she may be teaching someone like Wolvaardt to thaw a little.