Cape Town — Western Province have had many heroes over the years that have enthralled the Newlands faithful
Eddie Barlow through to Herschelle Gibbs, followed by Vernon Philander and now Tony de Zorzi have all showed off their sublime skill with the glorious Table Mountain overlooking from above.
But it would be fair to say that WP’s first heroine has been Laura Wolvaardt. Due to the scheduling of women’s cricket, Wolvaardt has not had the same opportunities as her male counterparts to entertain those sitting under the famed Oaks with her glorious cover drive often enough, but the classy Proteas’ Women's opener is firmly entrenched in the halls of greatness at Newlands.
This week the 23-year-old and her Proteas teammates have an opportunity to cement their legacy by surpassing anything any South African cricket-playing man has done.
The first hurdle is Bangladesh Tuesday evening. Overcome that challenge and the promised land of an ICC Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final awaits - most likely against old foe England on Friday.
From thereon it becomes nosebleed territory with the prospect of a home Women’s T20 World Cup final at Newlands on Sunday looming. The excitement is nerve-tingling due to the potential impact it may have on future generations of South African women’s cricketers.
On paper, the Proteas should beat Bangladesh. The Asian nation are winless after three matches here in South Africa.
But ICC tournaments - which is now at the business end; and pressure - that has been ramped up significantly, have never been good bedfellows of any Proteas team.
The weight of expectation is significant and Wolvaardt is acutely aware of it.
“Obviously, it's a massive game. Probably one of the more important games of my career. Thanks for reminding me,” Wolvaardt chuckled to the media yesterday.
“I think obviously being the host nation, there's always a little bit of extra pressure. But I think a lot of us feel really fortunate to be in this position and to be able to still have a chance to qualify for semi-finals.
“We're just trying to stay really focused on that and just keep focusing on our processes. I think it'll be awesome to just play in front of my family and friends.
“So, the vibe will be incredible. And we just need to stay calm and do what we do well.”
Wolvaardt has been shy of runs thus far in the tournament since returning to her preferred opening slot. She feels that it's more to do with execution that her batting position - even though her overall statistics suggest otherwise.
It is unlikely that the team management, headed by coach Hilton Moreeng and captain Sune Luus, will make such a bold call at this late stage of the tournament to move Wolvaardt back to the middle-order.
It is, therefore, a case of simply getting the job done, wherever she may find herself in the batting line-up, because the rest of the unit have not fired collectively as yet either.
“I think, obviously, we haven't really hit our straps. I don't think it's necessarily our plans that are wrong. I think we've just lacked execution in some of the games,” Wolvaardt said.
“We're trying to speak about having that intent when we're batting and to keep rotating and looking to score. I think we have the talent and we just need to stay calm and execute and we'll come right.
“I think I've been an opener for most of my life. I open in ODIs and it goes pretty well for me.
“So, I think the plan initially when they moved me down was always that I was going to sort of open one day when I was ready and sort of had developed my skills enough to move back.
“I think we have a lot of really great batters, who are really good in the middle. So, I didn't mind the change at all.”
Newlands will host a double-header Tuesday with England and Pakistan starting at 3pm before the Proteas face Bangladesh at 7pm.
IOL Sport