Laura Wolvaardt, a legendary South African cricketer, has achieved remarkable success in ODIs and T20Is, with impressive averages that rival those of cricket icon AB de Villiers, highlighting her status as one of the best players in the game’s history. Picture: PUNIT PARANJPE / AFP
Image: PUNIT PARANJPE / AFP
As Laura Wolvaardt turns 27 on Sunday, it’s quite staggering to see what she has already achieved in the game of cricket and that she should already be regarded as one of the best-ever South African players to grace the game.
High praise indeed, but it’s justified as Wolvaardt showcases textbook perfection in her strokeplay, and her achievements follow suit like her fastest-ever T20I century for the Proteas women against India at the Wanderers on Wednesday.
Though it’s a shame that her talents haven’t been allowed to be witnessed fully in Test cricket as the women’s game hardly plays in the format, she has stood out in ODIs and T20Is.
In fact, Wolvaardt has a much higher average in T20Is (37.91) than AB de Villiers (26.12), who is considered one of the best ever batters in history, not just for South Africa.
Of course, the pinnacle of the game in the ‘moer-en-soek’ T20 format is the Indian Premier League (IPL), where non-Indian players are mostly judged on their performances and impact.
Here too, in the Women’s Premier League (WPL), Wolvaardt’s average (32.95) is not far behind De Villiers (39.7). Although here, the comparisons become a little more tricky since Wolvaardt has played just four seasons in the WPL, which totals 23 matches, while De Villiers played a total of 184 games in the IPL.
It’s also interesting when it comes to ODIs how good the record of Wolvaardt is, even in comparison with De Villiers.
Wolvaardt averages 51.3 after 128 matches, while De Villiers ended with an average of 53.5 from 228 matches.
For many, it might be quite surprising to see how close Wolvaardt is to De Villiers in some stats, and even better in others.
To me, that means we’re not just talking about one legend of the game but two.
* The views expressed are not necessarily the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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