3rd WT20I: Wolvaardt happy with balance in power hitting after unbeaten ton against India
Johannesburg, April 23
South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt said she was happy in finding the right balance between traditional strokeplay and power hitting, something which she admitted to working on for the last few years, while hitting a sizzling 115 against India in the third T20I at the Wanderers Stadium.
Laura made 115 from just 53 balls as South Africa chased down India's total of 192/4 in 16.3 overs and took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-game series. "I am striking it pretty nicely. Something I've been working on quite a lot the last couple of years is my power hitting, but I'm also trying to find the balance between trying to whack it and still keeping my strokes and the way that I play.
"I'm obviously known for more traditional cricket, and sometimes I lose it a bit, try to hit it a bit too hard and lose my game. But I feel like I found the balance nicely to still keep my shape and hit some big shots," said Laura at the conclusion of the game.
While smashing 14 fours and five sixes, Laura brought up her century in just 47 deliveries and equal the record for the fourth fastest hundred ever in women's T20I cricket.
"Obviously worked on a lot of different stuff. But then I felt sometimes I lose my cover drive and I sort of just look at that sort of power hitting, muscling kind of thing. But I think the key thing for me is still my positions.
"Like yesterday in my training session, I literally just hit cover drives on the floor because I feel like if my positioning is good in that, then the rest of the game will take care of itself. So technically, I'm just trying to be in really strong positions. Just trying to hit long through the ball.
"It has been a work in progress, sort of finding the balance between trying to whack it in the power play and trying to play my game and to my strengths. But yeah, happy with how it went," she added.
Laura also put on a whopping 183 for the opening stand with fellow opener Sune Luus - the second time the pair have combined for a century partnership in the ongoing series. "It was an excellent innings (from Luus). I thought she was a little scratchy in the powerplay but she didn't get a lot of strike because I was facing a lot.
"It was really impressive to see how she hung in there and I think she has a lot of different options which makes it quite hard to bowl to her, especially the spinners in the powerplay because she sweeps so well and she can hit down the ground.
"I think we complement each other pretty well and it was nice to bat together. It was lovely to play here. It's such an amazing ground... and it was lots of fun playing at such a big stadium," she added.
South Africa will next take on India in the fourth T20I at the Wanderers on Saturday before the series concludes in Benoni on Monday.
— IANS
Reader Comments
Honestly, I'm not surprised. South Africa women have been playing some really smart cricket lately, and Wolvaardt is a class act. But what worries me is our batting - 192/4 in 20 overs should have been a winning total, but we couldn't defend it. The bowling and fielding need serious improvement.
Brilliant innings but I have to say - our bowlers looked like they were bowling to robots! No variation, no plan B. When a batter is in that kind of zone, you need to try something different - slower balls, change of pace, maybe even bring in a spinner earlier. Just bowling your standard pace is not going to work against someone like Wolvaardt.
👏 Take a bow, Laura! That innings was pure class. She showed how to balance traditional cricket with power hitting. But as an Indian fan, I'm disappointed with our performance. We have the talent but the execution has been poor throughout this series. Need to regroup and come back stronger for the last two matches.
I think we need to acknowledge that South Africa have simply outplayed us. Wolvaardt and Luus together were unstoppable. But what frustrates me as a fan is our bowling strategy - bowling short and wide to a batter who was scoring boundaries for fun? That's just poor game awareness. The team management needs to answer some questions.
As someone who follows women's cricket from the US, I've been really impressed with how Wolvaardt has evolved her game. She was always a technically sound batter but now she has added that power dimension. India have
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