Despite a humbling defeat in the third and final T20 International, South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt was pleased with her side’s 1-1 series draw with hosts India, in Chennai, on Tuesday.
The Proteas women crashed to 84 all out, and India had no problem in knocking off the run in 10.5 overs to romp to a 10-wicket victory.
It was a poor batting performance to end the series, which saw South Africa post scores of 189 and 177 in the first two clashes. In the first T20I South Africa claimed a 12-run win, and the second was rained out after they posted a similar score.
The anti-climatic finish will have left a bitter taste in the mouth, but Wolvaardt was looking at the entire series as a positive step.
The @ProteasWomenCSA skipper Laura Wolvaardt said she was happy overall with their 1-1 drawn T20I series against India.
— IOL Sport (@IOLsport) July 10, 2024
📽️: Cricket SA pic.twitter.com/atVB2Nj8g8
‘Positive intent was there’
“Overall I’m very happy with the series,” said Wolvaardt.
“We’ll take a lot of learnings from it. We were very happy with how we batted in the first two games. The positive intent was there and we made a lot of big strides with our batting. I don’t want this one little game to set us back with that.”
Still, being bowled out for under 100 in the final game was not ideal.
“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.
“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.”
There was a small positive in the final game, and that was all-rounder Marizanne Kapp returning to the bowling attack after an injury prevented her from contributing with the ball for over a month.
“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.”