By Admin 
After defeating England by 125 runs on Wednesday to reach the Women’s ODI World Cup final for the first time, South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt said it is an ‘unreal’ feeling.
When invited to bat, Wolvaardt played a brilliant innings of 169 runs on 143 balls and helped South Africa score 319 runs for seven wickets and then thanks to Marijne Cap’s five wickets for 20 runs, the team registered a spectacular victory by bowling out England for 194 runs.
“It still feels a little surreal,” Vollwart said during the post-match awards ceremony. I think as a child you dream of scoring a century in a World Cup knockout match. It was a very special day and I’m glad we won in the end. We knew the start would be very important.
“Everyone is very excited,” he said. The team felt very sad after losing to this opponent in the semi-finals in the last two tournaments. Very happy to win tonight.” He also praised his fellow opener Tajmin Britts (45), with whom he made a partnership of 116 runs for the first wicket.
“I think Taj (Britts) and I have been very strong at the top of the order and we have done well at the top,” Vollwart said. I’m so glad we were able to create this partnership in the first place. We had taken the lead in the beginning itself.
He said, “It was a good wicket so we just wanted to move on. It’s really good that we were able to score big because the wicket was quite flat. I think I had it in my mind that I had better shots (talking about the big shots down the leg side at the end) but I just wanted to reach the 40th over.
England captain Nat Sciver Brunt admitted that her team could not perform at its best tonight. He said, “The innings of two batsmen from South Africa were incredible. Today we were not at our best and to beat the best teams you have to put the whole game together. We could not do this and are very disappointed. It will take some time to understand this.
Sciver Brunt praised Wolvaardt for assessing his innings and the conditions better than anyone else. He said, “Wolwart assessed the conditions, knew what she had to do and some explosive batsmen were also coming which made it difficult for us.” As a team we performed well and did not let the opportunities on the field dominate us.
“Really happy to see everyone’s energy during those 50 overs (fielding),” Sciver Brunt said. Cap bowled some brilliant balls. The way he had started, we also wanted to do the same. It was not that easy to bat like Vollwart.