South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt said that they don't mind playing big teams early in the Women's World Cup 2025, and they always enjoy facing England in World Cup events. England and South Africa are set to begin their campaign against each other on Friday, October 3 in Guwahati.
00:00Good evening, gentlemen. Welcome to the Proteus Women's pre-match press conference.
00:04I have tomorrow's opening game for us against England.
00:07Top of the table, we've got skipper Laura Beaufort, ready to take your questions.
00:11Please raise your hand and then we'll bring the microphone over to you.
00:15And then afterwards, I've just got some questions from back home to read if we get our tongues.
00:23Okay, Laura, the first match tomorrow against a strong team, one of the strongest in the competition.
00:27So how do you look forward to that match and the tournament in general?
00:32Very excited to get going.
00:35Obviously, like you said, England are a very strong side.
00:38But we really enjoy playing against them in World Cups.
00:42I think they've beaten us in the semi-final of the last two editions of this tournament.
00:45So I think we'd be really keen to looking to get a good start against them tomorrow.
00:49I think being able to beat a team like that early on really sets the tone for the competition.
00:53So I think we've got a really strong group of players here.
00:56And I think we've prepared well and, yeah, really looking forward to that game.
01:01And the work of the way you've been batting alongside Briggs, and how special she has been over the last few months?
01:11Is here in particular?
01:12Yeah, Tasmin has been amazing.
01:14Obviously, I think she's scored 300s in a row up to this point.
01:18She's just battling with so much freedom at the moment, just really taking on the opposition.
01:23It's been great to see how aggressive she is early on in that power play.
01:26And, yeah, hopefully she's found form at the right time and can continue throughout the tournament.
01:31Yeah, obviously the men winning that World Test Championship is awesome.
01:32It's been amazing to see how the country has supported them and how excited everyone was back to this tournament.
01:36at home and sort of united to support them in that trophy.
01:41So, yeah, hopefully we have the chance to do something similar to really get the country behind us in this tournament.
01:46And, yeah, hopefully we can do something special.
01:47And then, yeah, obviously a lot of rain around us, but it's been amazing to see how the country has supported them and how excited everyone was back at home and sort of united to support them in that trophy.
02:05So, yeah, hopefully we have the chance to do something similar to really get the country behind us in this tournament.
02:10And, yeah, hopefully we can do something special.
02:13And then, yeah, obviously a lot of rain around.
02:16We're going to have to sort of just be as adaptable as we can.
02:20It seems that the apps are quite unpredictable.
02:23You don't really know when it's going to rain, even if the app says it's going to rain.
02:26So, I think we'll just be able to have to be able to adapt in the game and be able to adapt to whatever comes to us.
02:35Hi, Laura.
02:36It's not often that a captain admits to knowing the record against the opponents and you said you know that you've lost for England in World Cups.
02:46Conversations around that particular record where you haven't gotten the better of England as much as you want in World Cups.
02:53Has that happened and what is the mood around in the camp with respect to, you know, such situations?
02:58It's a bit of a tricky one because I feel like we've beaten them in the group stages in the past World Cups and then lots of them in the semifinals.
03:06So, we know as a group we can beat them, especially in the group stages.
03:11So, yeah, I think we know that if we play our best cricket we can sort of beat any side in the world.
03:18We've played some good cricket recently.
03:20We've been batting really well.
03:21We've been bowling better and better.
03:23So, yeah, I think all of us know that if we really stick to our plans and are really clear with what we want to do that we can beat them tomorrow.
03:30Marizan Kaap's age, I won't reveal, but she's been around the circuit for ever so long.
03:39So, has there been any conversation around this being her last or even if not conversations, what has she been around the group
03:47and how has the group been around her in the sense of maybe making this one for her and all those things?
03:54Yeah, none of those conversations just yet.
03:57I think she's still really enjoying her cricket at the moment and absolutely loves playing for South Africa.
04:02And it's been absolutely amazing to have her on the side.
04:05I think the amount of experience that she has is invaluable.
04:08She sort of knows every player going around.
04:11She's bowled to basically all of them.
04:12So, she's been great on the field sort of giving me advice on different players and different strategies.
04:17So, yeah, I hope she plays for another 10 years.
04:20That would be amazing.
04:22But yeah, hopefully we can make it a special World Cup for her.
04:25Hi.
04:26There were two very important series before this World Cup.
04:30One was the Tri-Series that just played in Sri Lanka.
04:33Again, the last series against Pakistan in Lama.
04:36How has been the learning problem?
04:38What you guys have been learning in these conditions?
04:41And how your preparation has been affected to those series?
04:45Where the performance was...
04:46I know this.
04:47It was like you must have been not satisfied by those performance.
04:52It's basically interesting.
04:54So, tell us about your preparation and what you think about it.
04:58I think the biggest learnings in those series are probably just how to play spin.
05:02Obviously, you had much different conditions to what we used to back at home.
05:06I think especially being nice and proactive with the bat against the spinners in that middle phase.
05:11I think we generally get off to good starts and I think we had really good death overs with the bat in that series in Sri Lanka.
05:18But probably could have done a bit more in that middle phase with the bat.
05:23Similar for our bowlers, I think containing the game a bit better in those middle overs has been big learning curves for us.
05:30And then obviously in Pakistan, that third ODI, we got a wicket that was really slow in turning and probably didn't adapt to the conditions as well as we would have liked.
05:38So, hopefully if we get something similar, we're able to adapt a bit better to that.
05:43We did some of the last question about the traditions.
05:47This time in the World Cup, you will be playing in different traditions.
05:51Like you will be one match, you will play in Assam, again in different traditions.
05:55And you guys have lots of experience of playing in India, but not in the stadiums and not in these traditions.
06:02So, how do people have played in India?
06:05Yeah, it's definitely not ideal that I've been to India a lot, but haven't played in a lot of these grounds.
06:10But I guess that's where we have to trust sort of the analysts and the people we have behind the scenes getting stats.
06:17Try to watch as much of the tournament as I can as well.
06:20Obviously there was a game on this field earlier.
06:22So, yeah, try again as much information as we can without actually playing.
06:26And you can generally see from like ground trends and stuff like that if it should be turning, be quicker, be slower, stuff like that.
06:34So, I think just stealing as much information as we can before we go.
06:38And then hopefully assessing really early when we get out there.
06:41How big is this Women's World Cup is going to be for the women's game over all across the world?
06:48Being heavy in India with potentially big crowds.
06:52And it could well be one of the most exciting, if not the most exciting in the process world cup in history.
06:57So, how big do you think it is for the game in general?
07:00Hopefully very big for the game.
07:02I think like you said, the women's game has grown incredibly in the last couple of years.
07:07And this sort of feels like the pinnacle of all of that.
07:10Having a massive world cup in India where the game has absolutely blown up in the last couple of years.
07:16And yeah, subcontinent conditions.
07:19A lot of really good subcontinent sides here that have a lot of good spinners.
07:23So, I think it sort of brings everyone to more of a level playing field.
07:26So, it should be really tightly contested and watched all around the world.
07:30Just one question more from .
07:37Just one from .
07:40You have a tough start to the world cup.
07:43And also, you can have a big impact on the countries in the world.
07:48Are you happy to sort of get the bigger sides out early or do you prefer to get them out early?
07:54I'm happy with bigger sides early.
07:57I think in a tournament like this though, I think there's not really such a thing as bigger sides.
08:03I think these conditions bring subcontinent teams into the game tremendously.
08:08There are some teams that play a lot of games at the same venue like Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
08:12So, I think they'll be hard to beat in those home conditions.
08:16Yeah, I don't see any game as an easy game.
08:19I don't mind playing bigger name teams early.
08:23I think it's sort of, if you can get a win or two there, it sort of sets you up for the tournament.
08:28So, you don't want to be in a position where you have must-wins at the end.
08:31So, yeah.
08:32I don't mind playing bigger teams early even though I don't really think any game is going to be easier than the other.
08:38Thank you so much. That brings us to the end.
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