Advertisement

Wolvaardt raises her bat: 5 000 runs and still in full flight!

cricket29 October 2025 14:20| © MWP
By:Antoinette Muller
Share

Laura Wolvaardt reached the 5 000-run career milestone during South Africa’s ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 semifinal against England at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday.

A thin edge through to fine leg for four was hardly the typical Wolvaardt style for such a feat, but that's merely a footnote in the career of a textbook player.

Fastidious with the bat and unflinchingly unfussed and with a cover drive that would make Kumar Sangakkarra blush, the South African captain has been breaking records since her teenage years.

Still only 26 years old, Wolvaardt is the second fastest to the feat and sixth highest run-scorer of all time in the women’s one-day format and the only South African woman to make it past the 4 000-run mark.

She tends to shrug off the plaudits, believing it is her duty rather than a chore, her feats make it hard not to take note. Just four months after making her international debut, she became the youngest South African - male all female and in all formats - to score a century. That record still remains and there will be more to come.

Testament to her tenacity is that she has been unburnt by captaincy. Rather than suffer, her batting has excelled and in 2023, she scored three unbeaten centuries in 12 matches, including her career best of 184 against Sri Lanka.

Whenever the team has had their back against the wall, it has been Wolvaardt who has led from the front and South Africans will be hoping she does so for many years to come.

Advertisement