South Africans needed something to brighten the gloom they were plunged into on Thursday by Bafana Bafana’s dismal performance in their football World Cup opener against Mexico.
They lost 2-0, but that wasn’t the worst of it. They were chained to a smallminded, defensive approach that rendered them hopelessly out of step with what was required to compete, nevermind win.
“Yeah, not the ideal start,” Laura Wolvaardt told a press conference in Manchester on Friday.
She had been asked if her team could burst the bubble of boo in the first match of their T20 World Cup campaign against Australia at Old Trafford on Saturday.
“Hopefully we can start a bit better.”
They didn’t. The team who have reached the finals of all of the last three World Cups, in both formats, flailed, failed, floundered and foundered to defeat by 65 runs.
Both sides had the benefit of being able to assess the conditions in the day’s early match, a Celtic clash between Scotland and Ireland, which was played on the same pitch. So the toss meant more than usual. Sophie Molineux called correctly, chose to bat, and handed over a team sheet that featured four spinners.
The Australians regrouped after being reduced to 62/4 in the eighth to total 172/8, thanks largely to a stand of 58 off 38 between Ellyse Perry and Georgia Wareham and another of 22 off 15 shared by Annabel Sutherland and Nicola Carey. South Africa were shunted out for 107 in 16.4 – the only time they have been dismissed by the Aussies in the format. Those four spinners – Molineux, Alana King, Wareham and Ash Gardner – took 8/72 in 12.4.
Importantly, Wolvaardt, a proven matchwinner and South Africa’s lynchpin, was marooned at the non-striker’s end for 43 of the 82 balls that were bowled while she was in the middle. When she did face she struggled to find gaps in the field – she made 44 off 39, but endured a dozen dot balls. Wolvaardt has 32 scores of 40 or more in T2OIs. In 25 of them she made her runs faster than her strike rate on Saturday of 112.82.
With Wolvaardt all but removed from the equation in a consequential sense, the South Africans were rudderless. It didn’t help that their batting order looked more like a thumbsuck than a plan. Or maybe the players hadn’t bought into what Mandla Mashimbyi was trying to achieve.
Annerie Dercksen batted at No. 3 for only the third time in her 26 T20I innings, and the first time since November 2024. That helped explain Kim Garth beating her for pace and bowling her off the pads with the 11th delivery of the innings.
But Nadine de Klerk puzzled a press conference after the match by saying, “I’m not sure why I’m there.” She was talking about batting at No. 4, which she has now done 10 times in 59 innings. Surely that’s enough experience to get something of a mental grip on the job, or at least on why you’ve been asked to do it?
Marizanne Kapp had her 100th innings in the format. She batted at No. 5, as she had done in 13 other trips to the crease. For some, Kapp is the answer to the apparently vexing question of who should be at No. 3 now that Wolvaardt has returned to opening. Kapp has walked in at first drop 38 times – more than at any other spot – and it’s where she has launched all five of her half-centuries.
Part of the disappointment South Africans felt on Saturday was bound to the hope that Australia might not be as dominant as in past tournaments. The T20 World Cup has been played nine times previously, and the Aussies triumphed in six of them. No other team have won this title more than once.
On Saturday’s evidence, albeit it early in the piece, a seventh success could be loading for the women in yellow. Or is it closer to the truth that South Africa’s run of reaching finals – without winning any of them – is reaching its end? It’s too soon to say.
The bigger truth is that South Africa have won only two of their 12 T20Is against Australia. But, as with Bafana, the manner of their latest reversal is concerning. Their opponents were the better team on the day demonstrably, but the South Africans played far below themselves.
They will want to give a significantly better account against Pakistan at Edgbaston on Wednesday, and they should – South Africa’s 15 victories in 27 games is their best record in the format except for their 11 wins in 17 against Sri Lanka.
That said, the Pakistanis have beaten South Africa a dozen times. Another display like sorry Saturday’s and an unlucky 13th could loom.
Read More: South Africa Faces Mexico in FIFA World Cup Opening Match
