{"id":5452,"date":"2026-04-27T18:19:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=5452"},"modified":"2026-04-28T08:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T06:22:23","slug":"wolvaardt-shines-as-proteas-women-march-to-a-4-1-series-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/27\/wolvaardt-shines-as-proteas-women-march-to-a-4-1-series-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolvaardt Shines As Proteas Women March To A 4-1 Series Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Laura Wolvaardt struck an unbeaten half-century to help propel the Proteas Women to a 23-run win over India in the fifth T20 International (T20I) at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Monday, sealing a 4-1 series victory for the hosts.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Wolvaardt, who was named Player of the Match and Player of the Series,\u00a0 top-scored with 92* off 56 balls (11 fours, 2 sixes) as South Africa posted 155\/6, before Nonkululeko Mlaba (2\/15) and Nadine de Klerk (2\/26) starred with the ball to restrict India to 132\/8 in their 20 overs.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The home side won the toss and elected to bat first. As in previous matches in the series, openers Wolvaardt and Sun\u00e9 Luus (23) made a positive start, guiding the Proteas to 49\/0 at the end of the powerplay.<\/div>\n<div>With Wolvaardt leading with poise and aggression, the pair added 75 for the opening wicket, with the South African captain raising her bat for her 16th T20I half-century. India\u2019s breakthrough came through Shree Charani (2\/22), who had Luus stumped in the ninth over.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>After reaching the halfway mark on 78\/1, India struck twice in quick succession, with Charani removing Tazmin Brits (2) before Deepti Sharma (2\/37) dismissed Annerie Dercksen (0) to reduce South Africa to 82\/3 in the 12th over.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Wolvaardt and Anneke Bosch (8) then added 24 runs for the fourth wicket before India picked up further wickets. Sharma dismissed Bosch, while Renuka Singh (2\/21) claimed the scalps of Chlo\u00e9 Tryon (12) and de Klerk (1) to leave the Proteas on 122\/5 in the 18th over.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A crucial unbeaten stand of 33 between Wolvaardt and Sinalo Jafta (16*) lifted the hosts to a competitive total, with Wolvaardt dispatching the final two balls of the innings for six.<\/div>\n<div>In reply, India struggled to find rhythm early on while losing key wickets. Shafali Verma (4) was the first to fall to Eliz-Mari Marx (1\/12), before Ayabonga Khaka (1\/29) removed Jemimah Rodrigues (1) in her opening over to reduce the visitors to 21\/2.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>India reached the end of the powerplay on 28\/2 before Anushka Sharma (17) fell to de Klerk in the eighth over.<\/div>\n<div>With the required run rate nearing the 10-run mark, the visitors attempted to stay in the chase through a 38-run partnership between Bharti Fulmali (40) and Harmanpreet Kaur (22). However, Kaur skied a delivery to hand Mlaba her first wicket, leaving India on 76\/4.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Fulmali, India\u2019s standout batter on the day, continued to fight alongside Deepti Sharma (8) as the visitors edged closer to three figures, before Tryon (1\/28) trapped Fulmali LBW in the 16th over.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Despite a few late blows from Richa Ghosh (25*), the result was effectively sealed as another wicket for Mlaba, along with a run-out involving the left-arm spinner, ensured South Africa kept India at bay to secure a 23-run victory and a dominant series win in their final international assignment before the ICC Women\u2019s T20 World Cup.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Laura Wolvaardt struck an unbeaten half-century to help propel the Proteas Women to a 23-run win over India in the fifth T20 International (T20I) at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/27\/wolvaardt-shines-as-proteas-women-march-to-a-4-1-series-victory\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5454,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5452\/revisions\/5454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}