Despite a disappointing loss in the third and final T20 International, South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt found solace in her team’s 1-1 series draw against hosts India in Chennai on Tuesday.
The Proteas women collapsed to 84 all out, allowing India to chase down the target in just 10.5 overs for a comprehensive 10-wicket victory.
It marked a lacklustre end to the series after South Africa posted competitive scores of 189 and 177 in the first two matches. They clinched the first T20I by 12 runs, while the second match was abandoned due to rain after a similar score.
Despite the anticlimactic finale, Wolvaardt chose to focus on the positives from the overall series performance.
“Overall, I’m very pleased with the series,” Wolvaardt said. “We’ll take away a lot of lessons from it.”
However, the captain acknowledged the disappointment of their subpar batting display in the final game.
“Not the way we wanted to end the series. It felt a bit stoppy while we were batting. I don’t think we adapted to conditions as well as we could have. We probably should have pulled back a bit and seen if we could bat a bit deeper. It’s a tough one because we’ve spoken about being a lot more positive as a batting unit, and it came off in the first two games.”
Reflecting on the match conditions, Wolvaardt noted the challenges faced under lights and dew.
“It’s just about assessing when it’s not quite there early on. In the second half, it [the ball] slid on well under lights and in the dew. It was a tough toss to lose, but we definitely could have put up 140, 150.”
Amidst the disappointment, Wolvaardt highlighted a positive with all-rounder Marizanne Kapp’s return to bowling after a six-week hiatus due to injury.
“It was awesome to have her back, I saw she went for 1.5 [runs per over] economy. That’s just the class player that she is. Not bowling for about six weeks, to come back in the power play with the new ball and be that economical is absolutely crazy. She’s probably one of the best in the world.”