Laura Wolvaardt is on the hunt for consistency

Seeing their best-laid plans come to life pleased Proteas Women captain Laura Wolvaardt in their 79-run victory over Sri Lanka Women in the first of three T20 internationals in Benoni on Wednesday.

A dazzling display of shot-making saw Wolvaardt strike 12 fours and three sixes in an innings that yielded 102 runs from 63 balls, along with 60 from veteran all-rounder Marizanne Kapp as the pair added 116 runs from 80 deliveries to steady the ship and put the hosts in command at 198 for five at the break.

“We have been scoring 150s consistently and our chats last night and pre-series were about how to find an extra 20 to 30 runs and get closer to the 170-180 mark,” Wolvaardt said.

“Kapp and I were ticking the score along nicely, in the last five I started hitting boundaries and we were able to push [close] to that 200 score.

“It's nice when you have that big partnership early on and you can set the game up to explode like that at the end. So, I was very happy that we were able to push that higher score because it is something we have been speaking about for a couple of months,” she said in the post-match media conference.

Wolvaardt got a lifeline when she was dropped on 63 in the 16th over, but would eventually perish two deliveries from the end of the innings after all the damage had already been done.

In reply, the Lankans were all out for 119 with Harshitha Samarawickrama (38 off 33) and Hasini Perera (30 off 18) top-scoring for the visitors. 

The visitors were far from their best in the field as two dropped chances spared Kapp early on and she punished the tourists, hitting four boundaries and three sixes in her 40-ball stay at the crease. 

Wolvaardt went on to smack three boundaries to see off the first half of the 20th over and bring up a maiden T20I century.

“Kappie was more the aggressor and I was sort of getting up and down to the other end.

“I was getting slightly frustrated that I wasn't finding the boundary that much [and] I was hovering around the 125 strike rate for quite a while.

“Just before she [Kapp] went out, we decided to have a go for the last five or six overs.

“I didn't think 100 was on the cards, it was only in the last over where I saw that I was on 88, I thought that if I hit three fours I could get there,” Wolvaardt said.

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