Proteas captain Laura Wolvaardt says Sunday’s T20 World Cup final defeat to New Zealand in Dubai hurts even more than losing to Australia in the decider on home soil last year.
Wolvaardt and her teammates will touch down at OR Tambo today at 10.15am, after going down to first-time winners New Zealand by 32 runs innie woestyn.
It was the team’s second final in a T20 World Cup in a row. Before this one they played Australia in the 2023 final and were beaten by 19 runs.
But after beating the Aussies in the semifinals, they had really high hopes heading into the final.
It wasn’t to be, with Wolvaardt (who scored the most runs in both the 2023 and 2024 tournaments) saying of which event hurts most: “I think this one for me. I think obviously last year we were just really excited to be in the final. It was our first one and we just really enjoyed the opportunity.
“But this year after the cricket we played in the semi, I really thought we would have it in the bag if we played another game of a similar nature.
“Just to play probably one of our worst games in the tournament, to be honest, in the final is a bit disappointing and we just got outplayed on the day.”
Of where it went wrong after NZ scored 158/5 and SA only got to 126/9, Wolvaardt says: “Obviously not a nice feeling. I think a lot of us really thought this was our opportunity. I think probably let them score a bit too many with the bat.
“They came out with some real intent and I think it sort of caught us on the back foot a little bit. We thought we could sort of ride it out hopefully score a wicket or two but they sort of just kept going, rotated really well…”