Durban crowd fuelling Proteas Women ahead of India series

The city is known to be home to quite a number of Indian nationals, who are expected to fill up Kingsmead Stadium to support their women’s national team. Wolvaardt revealed that they did have a discussion about that within camp ahead of the match, but doesn’t think it will affect them in any negative way.

"We did speak about it that it could possibly be more of an away crowd than a home crowd but yeah, I think it's awesome to just have people at the game. I think it will be a very cool mix of South African supporters and Indian fans,” Wolvaardt said.

“So, I'm really looking forward to it. I think it will create more of a buzz and more of a vibe than maybe what we are used to at home games. The last time we played against them we had 60 000 Indian fans in the stands so I think it couldn't get worse than that I guess but yeah, very excited to have more people at the game."

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The last time South Africa and India faced each other in a women’s cricket match was in the final of the 2025 World Cup in Navi Mumbai in November, where Wolvaardt and her teammates fell short of the trophy to the home team. 

She says although that was in the 50-over tournament, they still hold a grudge against them for which they hope to exert some revenge in this series.

"Very exciting rivalry obviously in the World Cup in a different format but beat them in the group stages but then lost the final which was disappointing. We haven't played them since that final obviously so definitely looking forward to a rematch,” she added.

“I think we play a lot of cricket against them so know what they are about and sort of already have plans in place for some of their players which is nice but yeah, really looking forward to this series it will be very exciting. 

“I know that they play a very brave brand of cricket and we do too. So, I think there should be some really nice contested games."