100 not out – Wolvaardt proud of Proteas Women’s captaincy journey

Having been appointed in the role in November 2023, she has led them to both the 2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup and 2025 ICC Women’s World Cup finals.

In those three years she has also amassed 15 centuries in all formats to go one run short of 9 000 career international runs – an unprecedented milestone for a Proteas Women’s player.

Wolvaardt explained how the role has changed how she sees the game and made her a better cricketer.

"The role has opened my eyes to all the different aspects of the game that I wasn't thinking about before. As a batter, I think you're very focused on yourself and what you want to achieve with your score and your strike rate, but as a captain a day before the game I'm thinking about bowling plans, the conditions and fields we want to set. It's made me think about the game a lot more which helped me develop as a cricketer and allowed me to come out of my shell a little bit more."

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The painfully shy Wolvaardt also spoke of having to come out of her shell once she had to be the face of the team, and balance that with letting her bat do most of the talking for her.

She singled out coach Mandla Mashimbyi for praise and says they’ve complimented each other well in trying to take the team forward.

At just 27-years-old Wolvaardt has a lot of cricket still left in her, and she made it clear that she has no plans to walk away from her position anytime soon.