Laura Wolvaardt (born 26 April 1999) is a South African

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who currently plays for

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: * Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provin ...

Adelaide Strikers The Adelaide Strikers are an Australian professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia that compete in the Big Bash League (BBL).Cricket Australia (n.d), Teams and Players, Cricket Australia, accessed 1 Decembe ...

Gujarat Giants Gujarat Giants (formerly known as Gujarat Fortunegiants) is a kabaddi team based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat that plays in the Pro Kabaddi League. The team is currently led by Chandran Ranjith and coached by Ram mehar Singh. The team is owned by Ad ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. She plays as a right-handed opening

batter Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

. She has previously played for

Northern Superchargers Northern Superchargers are a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in the city of Leeds. The team represents the traditional areas of North East and Yorkshire in The Hundred competition, which first took place during the 2021 English and Wel ...

and

Brisbane Heat The Brisbane Heat are an Australian men's professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that competes in the Big Bash League. The Heat wears a teal uniform and are based in Brisbane in the Australian state Queensland. Their home ground is the Br ...

Career

Domestic

Aged 13, Wolvaardt was selected to play for the Western Province U-19 girls' team. In October 2013, she made her first appearance for the

senior team in a

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

match against Boland women, scoring 13 runs from 18 balls. She made her

limited overs cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...

debut for Western Province in a November 2013 match against Boland, scoring 4 from 14 balls. She was the top scorer in the 2013 Cricket South Africa Under 19 Girls Week, and competed again in 2014 representing Western Province. Wolvaardt scored 46 in Western Province's final match of the 2015/16 Women's Provincial League, as they won the title for the fourth consecutive year. In November 2017, she was named in

's squad for the 2017–18 Women's Big Bash League season. In November 2018, she was named in Brisbane Heat's squad for the

2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season The 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season or WBBL, 04 was the fourth season of the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), the semi-professional women's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament ran from 1 December 2018 to 26 ...

. She played for the Heat in their final against

Sydney Sixers The Sydney Sixers are an Australian professional franchise men's cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League (BBL). Along with the Sydney Thunder, the Sixers are the successors of the New ...

. Heat won the match to win the title. Laura continued her appearances in the WBBL after signing with the

for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 Australian summer seasons. In September 2019, she was named in the Terblanche XI squad for the inaugural edition of the

Women's T20 Super League The Women's T20 Super League is a women's domestic Twenty20 cricket tournament organised by Cricket South Africa. The tournament began in September 2019, with four teams taking part; these teams were renamed for a second competition in December 2 ...

in South Africa. In 2021, she was drafted by

for the inaugural season of The Hundred. In April 2022, she was bought by the Northern Superchargers for the

2022 season of The Hundred The 2022 season of The Hundred will be the second season of The Hundred, a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament involving eight men's and women's teams located in major cities across England and Wales. The competition will return ...

. In March 2023, Woolvaardt was added to the

squad as a mid-season replacement for

Beth Mooney Bethany Louise Mooney (born 14 January 1994) is an Australian professional cricketer who plays for the national cricket team as a batter in all three formats of the game. At the domestic level, she plays as a wicket-keeper-batter for Western ...

in the 2023 Women's Premier League.

International

In December 2013, 13-year-old Wolvaardt was invited to play for a South Africa Women's U-19 invitational team. She was later named the 2013

Cricket South Africa Cricket South Africa (CSA) is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South Afr ...

under-19 female cricketer of the year. Wolvaardt has captained the South Africa Women's U-19 side, and in February 2016, she made her

Women's One Day International Women's One Day International (WODI) is the limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 overs, equivalent to the men's game. The first women's ODIs were played in 1973, as part of the first Women's World Cup which was ...

debut in the opening match of a three-match series against England aged 16. In the second match of the series, she scored her maiden

half century One half ( : halves) is the irreducible fraction resulting from dividing one by two or the fraction resulting from dividing any number by its double. Multiplication by one half is equivalent to division by two, or "halving"; conversely, ...

in a 114-run partnership with

Trisha Chetty Trisha Chetty (born 26 June 1988) is a South African cricketer. She has played two Tests, and made one hundred and twenty limited-overs appearances for South Africa since 2007. She plays as a wicket-keeper and right-handed batter. On 17 March ...

. She also played in a match against

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, and scored 10 in an opening partnership of 33 runs. In August 2016, Wolvaardt became the youngest centurion, male or female, for

in international cricket. As a 17-year-old, the opener struck a match-winning 105 against Ireland Women to wrap up a 67-run victory in

Malahide Malahide ( ; ) is an affluent coastal settlement in Fingal, County Dublin, Ireland, situated north of Dublin city. It has a village centre surrounded by suburban housing estates, with a population of over 17,000. Malahide Castle dates from th ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In May 2017, she was named Women's Newcomer of the Year at Cricket South Africa's annual awards. In March 2018, she was one of fourteen players to be awarded a national contract by Cricket South Africa ahead of the 2018–19 season. In October 2018, she was named in South Africa's squad for the

2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 The 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 was the sixth edition of the ICC Women's World Twenty20, hosted in the West Indies from 9 to 24 November 2018. It the second World Twenty20 hosted by the West Indies (after the 2010 edition), and the West Ind ...

tournament in the West Indies. Ahead of the tournament, she was named as the player to watch in the team. In January 2020, she was named in South Africa's squad for the

2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup The 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Women's T20 World Cup tournament. It was held in Australia between 21 February and 8 March 2020. The final took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on International Women's Day. Hosts Aus ...

in Australia. On 23 July 2020, Wolvaardt was named in South Africa's 24-woman squad to begin training in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

, ahead of their planned tour to England. In February 2022, she was named in South Africa's team for the

2022 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup was the twelfth edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, which was held in New Zealand in March and April 2022. It was originally scheduled for 6 February to 7 March 2021 but was postponed by one year due ...

in New Zealand. In May 2022, she played seven matches for the Barmy Army team at the 2022 FairBreak Invitational T20 in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

, United Arab Emirates. During the Invitational, she scored a total of 186 runs at a strike rate of 116.25, including two fifties. In June 2022, Wolvaardt was named in South Africa's

Women's Test Women's Test cricket is the longest format of women's cricket and is the female equivalent to men's Test cricket. Matches comprise four-innings and are held over a maximum of four days between two of the leading cricketing nations. The rules gov ...

squad for their one-off match against England Women. She made her Test debut on 27 June 2022, for South Africa against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In July 2022, she was named in South Africa's team for the cricket tournament at the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, England.

One Day International centuries

Honours

In July 2020, she was named South Africa's Women's Cricketer of the Year at

's annual awards ceremony. At the

2021 ICC Awards The 2021 ICC Awards were the seventeenth edition of ICC Awards. The nominations took into account players' performance between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021. The announcement of the ICC World XI Teams were made on 19 and 20 January 2022. T ...

, she was named in the ICC Women's T20I Team of the Year.

Personal life

Wolvaardt graduated from Parklands College in 2017 with 7 Distinctions, ranking top in her class. Simultaneously she served as Head-Prefect alongside the other Head-Prefect, Connor Fick.https://www.tabletalk.co.za/news/parklands-prefects-6655932

References

External links

* * *
The Final Word Podcast
Interview of Laura Wolvaardt (21 July 2022) �
on Apple Podcastson Google Podcastson Spotify
an
on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolvaardt, Laura 1999 births Living people South African women cricketers South Africa women Test cricketers South Africa women One Day International cricketers South Africa women Twenty20 International cricketers Western Province women cricketers Adelaide Strikers (WBBL) cricketers Brisbane Heat (WBBL) cricketers Northern Superchargers cricketers IPL Velocity cricketers Gujarat Giants (WPL) cricketers Cricketers from the Western Cape Cricketers at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for South Africa