Proteas’ skipper Laura Wolvaardt says England ‘are a very strong side, but we really enjoy playing against them in World Cups’. (Photo: Isuru Sameera / Gallo Images) 
The Proteas launch their Women’s Cricket World Cup campaign in India and Sri Lanka with a tough task against England on Friday, 3 October.
South Africa have had the privilege of seeing every other side, besides their opponents on Friday, play a match before they take to the field for the first time.
Their opponents, who they play in Guwahati in India, will be no easy challenge. England are, historically, the second-best side at Women’s 50-over World Cups with four titles across the competition’s 12-tournament history.
England finished runners-up to Australia at the previous World Cup in 2022. At the preceding tournament, they clinched the title at home in 2017.
On both occasions, they beat South Africa to reach the final. Current skipper Laura Wolvaardt was on the wrong side of both those results.
Excited
“We’re very excited to get going,” Wolvaardt said in her pre-match press conference on Thursday.
“England are a very strong side, but we really enjoy playing against them in World Cups. They’ve beaten us in the semifinal of the last two editions of this tournament, so we’d be really keen to get a good start against them tomorrow.
“Being able to beat a team like that early on really sets the tone for the competition.”
The Proteas’ record against the Poms, outside of World Cups, hasn’t been the best in recent times either.
South Africa and England have met eight times since the previous Cricket World Cup in New Zealand in 2022, including a three-match series in South Africa at the end of last year. Of those eight matches, South Africa have won only one.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TL_2273278.jpg "Proteas Women vice-captain Chloe Tryon has highlighted the team’s focus on executing the basics well. (Photo: Isuru Sameera / Gallo Images)")
“The team has changed a lot over the last couple of years,” vice-captain Chloe Tryon explained.
“We have some young players coming in, but we have a lot of experienced players, and everyone’s just taken up on their role really beautifully.
“The way that we’ve worked on our prep behind the scenes has been really good. I’m not looking at too [many] of those stats.
“At the end of the day, we’re going into a World Cup where we’re playing the best in the world.
“It’s an opening game, so there’s a lot of pressure on everyone, but just making sure that we put up our hands and play our best cricket.”
Strong opponents
Outside the challenge of facing one of the title contenders right off the bat, the Proteas follow that with a match against current T20 World Cup title-holders New Zealand and then hosts India, who – like South Africa – have been on the edge of World Cup greatness for the past decade.
“I’m happy with [playing against] the bigger sides early,” Wolvaardt said.
The tournament structure is round-robin, so each team plays the others once before the semifinal stage.
“In a tournament like this, though, there’s not really such a thing as bigger sides,” Wolvaardt said. “These conditions bring subcontinent teams into the game tremendously. There are some teams that play a lot of games at the same venue, like Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“So they’ll be hard to beat in those home conditions. I don’t see any game as an easy game.
“If you can get a win or two, that sort of sets you up for the tournament. You don’t want to be in a position where you have must-wins at the end.”
South Africa’s final group stage match is against reigning champions Australia, with clashes against subcontinent trio Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan looming before that.
Little things
South Africa’s objective at the World Cup is to do the little things well. Tryon believes that if they do that, they are capable of beating any team in the world.
“[We want to] make sure that as a batting unit, you’re staying in as long as you can”.
She said the wicket looked as if it took a bit of a turn, “so just make sure that you build lots of partnerships”.
“And just bowl in the stumps and just make sure that you’re taking your catches. Catches win matches, and I think it’s so important in a game when a player is on a low score and you drop a catch, it can cost you. So just making sure that we’re doing the small things for as long as possible.” DM
South Africa’s opening Cricket World Cup match against England starts at 11:30am South African time at the Barsapara Stadium.