Wolvaardt hails South Africa’s ‘amazing turnaround’ after crushing win over New Zealand

Indore, Oct 6 (PTI) South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt hailed her team’s “amazing” turnaround after they bounced back from a batting collapse in their previous outing to script a six-wicket win over New Zealand in the Women’s ODI World Cup, here on Monday.

Having been bowled out for just 69 in their tournament opener against England, South Africa produced a clinical all-round show, dismissing New Zealand for 231 in 47.5 overs before chasing down the target in 40.5 overs.

"Definitely, such an amazing turnaround. I think this is what we knew that we were capable of in that first game. So we're really happy that we could put that behind us and bounced back today," Wolvaardt said during the presentation.

On restricting New Zealand to 231, Wolvaardt credited her bowlers for executing their plans to perfection.

"We had an amazing last 15 (overs), we just bowled really well in that phase. (Nonkululeko) Mlaba came back for her second spell and was amazing. Our death plans were really good." Tazmin Brits set up the chase with a blistering 101 off 89 balls, scoring her seventh ODI century.

“She’s going amazing. I think she's scored 600 (runs) in the last seven games or something. It's just phenomenal to have her in our changing room. Very glad that she's doing that and continuing it in the World Cup. Hopefully she can keep doing it for many games to come,” Wolvaardt said.

Looking ahead, Wolvaardt said the focus would quickly shift to their next match against India on Thursday.

"Enjoy tonight but then like we forgot about the first game, we need to forget about this as well. Because cricket starts at zero every time. And that's a very big game for us as well," she said.

"Starting the tournament with three crucial games, so we'll need to be fully switched on. Quite a big turnaround as well. New venue too. So we'll definitely need to do our prep and come back up hard." New Zealand captain Sophie Devine admitted her side lost the plot after being well placed to post a bigger total.

"I think even though it was a different pitch to the first game, I still thought it was a 270-280 wicket. I thought we got ourselves into a position to launch, and then we just continually lost wickets. It’s hard to really have a crack at the back end when you’re doing that.

"So, look, credit has to go to South Africa. The way they batted at the top there, they negated what we threw down at them. Disappointing for us today." Devine said the White Ferns were under pressure but remained hopeful of a turnaround.

"I think we’d spoken about it before we even started this competition, that you’re going to have to win a lot of games, and that’s no different for us now. It probably puts a little bit more pressure on these remaining games, but I think that’s a good thing," she said.

"We know exactly where we stand and what we have to do. We’ll go and reflect on this game. There were still some things that went well in both innings, but we know in this competition you can’t just play half a game. So, disappointing, but there’s still a long way to go in this tournament." Player of the Match Brits, who became the fastest woman to score seven ODI hundreds surpassing Meg Lanning, said she was delighted with her form.

"Funny enough, I'm not one for records, but when you mention Meg Lanning, I'm glad I'm above that one. As long as you just win the games, then I'm all good," she said.

"I don't actually know. I'm just backing myself a bit more. I'm trying to be as positive as I can. We actually had a lot of batting camps, I think that definitely helped. I'm trying to expand my batting a bit more and not to be one-dimension." On her century, she said, "I just said I'm going to be as positive as possible, just get out of the middle of all the balls. It's actually funny, it was a new bat. I haven't used it once. I think that's going to be the lucky bat from now on." PTI ATK DDV