Wolvaardt shifts pressure to England ahead of World Cup semi-final

The skipper says they know the crowd at the Oval will be heavily backing the hosts, and that will sow some tension in their opponents’ team. 

South Africa also beat the English in the semi-finals of both the 2023 T20 World Cup and the 2025 ODI World Cup, and Wolvaardt believes they can find a way to win again when the odds are against them.

"I think we've found a way to win games which has been good, and we are very excited to be playing in front of a sold out crowd. I think they'll have a little bit more pressure on them with all of that support so hopefully we can pout together a good game of cricket."

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While she was happy with how their bowling unit has performed thus far at the tournament, especially with Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail in the powerplay, she did express concerns about their batting.

"I think our bowling has been pretty good, and I think having Kapp and Ismail up early for us in the power play has been a massive boost, and then I think in the middle to death overs we've been able to keep things quiet. With the bat we haven't been at 100%, and I think all of our batters will admit they would've liked to have scored more runs, but I think that's exciting."

The Proteas Women have won some nail-biters on their way to the last four, and Wolvaardt admitted that they’ve had a discussion about having the killer instinct when on top.