“I kept checking Shafali Verma, she can hurt teams” - South African captain Laura Wolvaardt

South African captain Laura Wolvaardt has opened up on her team’s defeat to the Indian women’s team in the grand finale of the ICC ODI Women’s World Cup 2025 in Navi Mumbai on Sunday, November 2.

Speaking in the post-match presentation, Wolvaardt stated that they had a completely indifferent campaign as they were either really good or really bad throughout the competition. However, she asserted that she is proud of the whole group for putting up a collective effort. 

"I could not be prouder of this team for the campaign we had. Brilliant cricket throughout, but outplayed today by India. Unfortunate to be on the losing side, but we will definitely grow from this. We did so well to put those couple of bad games behind us. We were either really good or really bad, but thankfully more of the really good. Amazing tournament for a lot of the players, and proud of the resilience we showed," Wolvaardt said in the post-match presentation ceremony.

"Probably did not have my best year leading into the World Cup, and did not start it well. Overthinking it was not good. It is just another game of cricket, trying to separate the two, and that sort of freed me up a bit to play my natural game and then focus on the captaincy at a different time," she explained.

Furthermore, Wolvaardt also heaped praise on the Indian opening batter Shafali Verma, who came in as a replacement batter for Pratika Rawal. Later, Wolvaardt talked about the veteran all-rounder Marizanne Kapp playing her last World Cup event.

"We were hoping for a little bit more swing. There was still something in it, so still feel it was the right call to bowl. We were in it for a lot of the chase but lost too many wickets. I kept checking Shafali. She batted excellently. That is the way she plays. When it comes off, she can really hurt teams," she said.

"She (Kapp) has been phenomenal for so many editions. Really sad it is going to be her last one. The whole group wanted to win it for her. She is two players in one and very happy she is on our team."

Wolvaardt accumulated 101 off 98 balls in the final and ended the campaign as the leading run-scorer in a single World Cup edition with 571 runs in 9 innings at an average of 71.37.

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