South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt felt the Women’s ODI World Cup final on Sunday will see India under a lot of pressure of winning in front of a boisterous home crowd at the DY Patil Stadium.
“Yes, it’s going to be a tough game with the whole crowd behind India, it’s going to be an exciting opportunity and it is going to put a lot of pressure on them as well. With the whole country behind them and expecting them to win. We are very excited for the game. They are a very good side and we are going to have to play some very good cricket to beat them,” she added.
Wolvaardt stated that South Africa will see the final as a new game without the baggage of history which is in their favour having beaten India in their last three World Cup contests.
“We are not going to think too much about the past tomorrow. Like I said every cricket game starts at zero and we don’t want to bring any other history into this whether its finals we’ve lost or games that we have won against India. We want to erase all that stuff and start completely fresh again,” he added.
“There’s going to be pressure on both teams and whoever stays the calmest is going to most likely come out as the winner.”
The star SA batter explained that knockout stages of a World Cup is completely different from the league games.
“I think knock out cricket is completely different to league cricket and people are able to do some really special things in knock out games as you saw from Jemi (Jemimah Rodrigues) the other day.”
“So we have to play some really good cricket against this Indian side and they are coming after a morale-boosting win against Australia in the semifinal. So we have to stick to playing some good cricket and stick to the basics that we have been doing till now,” she added.
Wolvaardt felt that the crowd factor will be there but added that South Africa will look to stay as calm as possible.
“I enjoyed batting on super-flat wickets in Guwahati as a batter but not as a captain setting fields. Like you said, its going to be a big crowd and probably the biggest crowd that some of our players would be seeing in their lives.”
She felt staying calm was indeed the key no matter what is happening during the game.
“A lot of eyeballs on the game and a lot of added pressure and a pretty batting friendly track. It’s going to be really important to stay calm and that’s going to be crucial. We need to stay as grounded as possible with the crowd, the noise and the boundaries.
When asked what plans they have to silence the Indian crowd, Wolvaardt chuckled and said winning was the best option.
“Hopefully, we win. That will silence them.”
With Australia and England not making it to the World Cup final for the first time, Wolvaardt was of the opinion that it was certainly healthy for the sport in the long run.
“Definitely very good for the health of the sport that we will have a new world champion in the ODI World Cup. Yeah, it’s an indication of how the women’s game is developing and how countries are using resources to produce quality cricketers. If you see Indian cricket, with Women’s Premier League (WPL), how many new cricketers have surfaced and how well they have been playing. We have also come a long way,” she added.
