South African skipper Laura Wolvaardt has surpassed the milestone of 2000 runs in Women’s Twenty20 Internationals (WT20Is) becoming the first South African batter to do so.
The star South African opener was 12 runs shy of completing the 2000 run mark before the start of the first T20I against England. Laura scored 22 runs in the game before being dismissed by Charlie Dean, providing a positive start for the Proteas women.
The 25-year-old has had a defining year with the bat so far in the shorter format, with 648 runs in 18 innings averaging 40.50 with the bat, including a century after scoring 102 against Sri Lanka in March 2024.
In August 2016, Laura Wolvaardt made her T20I debut against the Irish side scoring 24 runs, opening the batting, on her debut. The right-handed batter was only 17 years old when she made her T20I debut. It was in her ninth T20I inning in October 2018 that she made her first fifty for her national side after scoring an unbeaten 55 also earning the player of the match for the same.
In her first major tournament in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, the right-handed batter had an ordinary outing with only 16 runs in three innings. It was in the 2020 edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, that Laura scored her first fifty in the T20 World Cups after scoring an unbeaten 53 off 36 against Pakistan also being the player of the match.
But a revolving moment in the shorter format of the game for Laura Wolvaardt came in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, she was the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 230 runs in six innings which included three fifties at an average of 46. The South African opener played a vital role in the Proteas making it to their first-ever T20 World Cup final. It was in the same edition she completed 1000 runs in the T20I format.
Laura Wolvaardt was appointed as South Africa’s skipper across formats in November 2023. During her first stint as a captain in a World Cup event, Wolvaardt led South Africa to their second consecutive final after finishing runners-up in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. Taking on the captaincy role didn’t affect Laura Wolvaardt’s exceptional batting form, also being the leading run scorer in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 scoring 223 runs in six innings averaging 44.
With over 2000 T20I runs, Laura Wolvaardt continues to shine as South Africa’s finest batter.
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