‘Surprise factor’: Laura Wolvaardt on Shafali Verma’s crucial wickets

NAVI MUMBAI: South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt commented on India’s Shafali Verma’s surprise bowling performance in the World Cup final, where she picked up crucial wickets with her slow bowling.

Wolvaardt found it frustrating that Verma’s unorthodox bowling proved effective, especially in picking up big wickets, and acknowledged that India played well. Shafali’s brilliant 87, followed by two crucial wickets, helped India secure a World Cup title that could well boost the women’s cricket scene in the coming years.

India finally broke their world title drought, securing their maiden ICC Women’s World Cup title by beating first-time finalists South Africa by 52 runs in a clinical display at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.

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Thank you India for your support and love. See you soon. pic.twitter.com/G7JHckQtjD

— Laura Wolvaardt SA (@IDFMAGA) November 3, 2025

“Yeah, didn’t really expect her to bowl much today. So, a bit of a surprise factor from them. She just kind of bowled with front of the hand and really slow and was able to pick up a couple of wickets. I think. Yeah. In a World Cup final, you don’t want to lose wickets to a part-time bowler. But frustrating that she was able to pick up two, two big ones as well, and yeah, then almost had to own the side of caution to not give her any more wickets. So yeah, she bowled pretty well. Frustrating, I guess, because it’s not really the person you plan for. But yeah, she played well”, Laura Wolvaardt told reporters.

Wolvaardt reflected on her growth in ODI cricket during the World Cup, embracing a more positive and aggressive approach. She revealed that she was working on exploring different options, including scoring leg-side runs, to counter field placements.

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Wolvaardt once again stood tall for her side, scoring a brilliant 101 off 98 balls in the Women’s World Cup final against India in Navi Mumbai on Sunday. The 26-year-old batter enjoyed a record-breaking campaign, finishing as the highest run-getter in a single World Cup edition. Wolvaardt amassed 571 runs in 9 innings at an outstanding average of 71.37, which included two centuries and three fifties.

“I think my ODI cricket has sort of come a long way in this tournament. I think to win games you’ve got to be nice and positive and nice and aggressive, and I’ve really tried to sort of explore that a bit in this tournament. I think it hasn’t been my best year in ODI cricket, which was maybe a bit too conservative or one-dimensional. So really happy with the different options that I was able to bring in throughout this tournament”, she said.

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“I think today I scored quite a lot of legside runs or a few legside boundaries, which is something I’ve sort of been working on to open up different spaces because they, yeah, sort of stack that offside and dot me up there. So yeah, I’ve been trying, I think in T20 cricket it’s options that I use, but not necessarily in ODI cricket. So I’m happy I was able to bring some of that in,” she added.

Wolvaardt felt the Proteas were in the chase for a long time, and her partnership with Annerie Derksen was crucial. However, losing her wicket shifted the momentum. Wolvaardt believed they left too much for De Klerk Nadine to do alone in the end and narrowly missed out on the win.

“I thought we were in the chase for a very long time. I think we were pretty neck and neck with them. When they showed the updates on the scoreboard, I thought me and Derksen’s partnership was pretty big. I thought we were going to take it through to the end. Then she just got out right as we were trying to sort of launch into the back ten, and then I went out too soon after, and yeah, I still thought Chloe and Nades could do it together. I think we left Nadine a little bit too much to do by herself, but, yeah, I think we were right in that game for a lot of it,” she concluded. (ANI)