Wolvaardt, Kapp take SA to World Cup final

South Africa needed to go where they had never gone before. Laura Wolvaardt needed to carry forward the momentum and conjure a semifinal special. Marizanne Kapp had to bowl with the heat that had eluded her in the tournament so far.

- Samreen Razzaqui

In a grudge-match against England, all of the above happened and South Africa exorcised the ghosts that spooked them in the tournament opener.

It’s not often that you see a memorable knock and a memorable bowling spell in the same match but Wolvaardt and Kapp delivered. They made sure that they buried the memories of the 69 all out and the eventual 10-wicket defeat and staged a turnaround in the semifinal with a 125-run win to lock in their first-ever ODI World Cup final.

Wolvaardt notched up one of the greatest innings in a knockout game with a whirlwind 169 off 143. Her first century in a World Cup, her knock was the third highest score in a knockout behind Harmanpreet Kaur's I71* vs Australia, 2017 and Alyssa Healy's 170 vs England, 2022. It was also the second-highest individual score by a captain in a World Cup match behind 229* runs by Belinda Clark against Denmark in the 1997 edition.