South African Captain Laura Wolvaardt tore up favourites England by a dramatic largely single handed 169 off 143 ball 125 run semi final winning assault to lead her side from a shaky tournament start to their maiden final of the 2025 ICC Women’s World Cup in extinguishing the hot ominous Sciver Brunt led challenge in smashing through all the odds maximised by Kapp’s astounding 5 for 20 dismantling an ominous opposition that had reached the height of its batting in the scramble to the last four in shifting the balance that would have left the Englans skipper rue her decision to deciding to field on the toss that was a big price to pay 318 for 7 chase, the second highest world cup knockout score, snd second highest chase to Australia chasing down 331 against India they paid at Guwahati yesterday.
South Africa will face off against the winner of the second semi-final between Australia and India for the title on Sunday.
The significance of Wolvaardt’s lambasting was of a batter who blasted her way from a low key profile since her early career to rising to the summit of a truly big show feat that simply took the sails off England in an early elegance she transformed to the brutal leg-side final assault supported by Tazmin Brits’ 45 and Kapp’s swift 42 off 33 balls. Wolvaardt brought it to a momentum by her seventh-wicket 89 bonding with Chloe Tryon, who was unbeaten on 33.
England simply wilted before the giant 331 target with Kapp maximising on the advantage with her 5 wickets roping in two in the first over as England skid to 1 for 3, including the key wicket of Sciver-Brunt who had built a century stand with Alice Capsey.
Kapp went on to take two more wickets in as many balls to put South Africa on the brink of victory.
South Africa 319 for 7 (Wolvaardt 169, Ecclestone 4-44) beat England 194 (Sciver-Brunt 64, Capsey 50, Kapp 5-20) by 125 runs