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CHAMPIONS! I need to start this week's piece differently, because it's been a different kind of week.
I've been thinking about the women of South Africa all week. This is not the usual way I open my weekly feature with an exciting sporting observation or scoreline. I've been thinking about the women because of the bodies of women found in the Kempton Park area over the past two months, the search for missing runner Elizabeth "Tsontso" Moselakgomo that gripped the country, and the fear that's settled over so many women, simply going about their ordinary lives - running, walking, existing.
And it's made me sit with something uncomfortable: how much I, as a man, simply don't think about. I can lace up my shoes and go for a run at 5am, alone, and the only thing on my mind is my pace. I can get into an e-hailing car by myself at night and not send my location to a friend, and not stay on the phone with someone "just in case." I can go for a hike with just my dogs. None of that is bravery. It's just Tuesday. And it is not Tuesday for the women I know, and it hasn't been for a very long time. That gap, between what I get to take for granted and what the women of South Africa have to actively manage, every single day is worth sitting with, even for a paragraph, before I go back to writing about sport.
And, it’s actually quite fitting that this week my focus is on the Proteas Women and their historic maiden tour of Zimbabwe. It’s a five match T20 international series played entirely at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo. And with two matches still to come, our Proteas Women have already sealed the series 3-0!
Stand out performances from our Champions so far have been debutant Nthabiseng Nini who was named Player of the Match in the first game with figures of 3/17 on her international debut. We won that game by six wickets.
Proteas Women won the second game by 64 runs with Anneke Bosch smashing 65 off just 31 balls and then taking 2 wickets for just five runs earning her Player of the Match status.
And then the third game was all about our skipper Laura Wolvaardt, who reminded everyone who she is! Wolvaardt scored an unbeaten 126 off just 62 balls. This was her fourth T20I century, and took her level with India's Smriti Mandhana on 18 international centuries, the most by any woman in the game's history, and one clear of Meg Lanning on the all-time list.
The innings also gave her the highest individual T20I score by a South African woman, passing Shandre Fritz's 116, and pushed her past 3,000 T20I runs in just 101 innings, second only to Australia's Beth Mooney. Wolvaardt is also one of only three women ever to score centuries in all three international formats, and she already holds the record for the most runs in a single World Cup - 571 at the 2025 ODI World Cup, including a 169 in the semi-final and a 101 in the final.
Sorry, every single time I type out the name ‘Laura Wolvaardt’, I suddenly get goosebumps and become extremely proud to be a South African. This usually then results in me regurgitating all her records and accomplishments. And what makes it all so much better is that she’s a wonderful person on and off the field. OK! Yes, I am obsessed with her!
Back to the series. The fourth match is today (the 17th of September) with the fifth and final game on Saturday the 19th of September.
And from the cricket pitch to the rugby field. Our Springbok Women are also in action this weekend. We play Wales Women on Friday 18 September at Cardiff Arms Park, kicking off the second round of the WXV Global Series Challenger, presented by Mitsubishi Electric.
Champions, if I can end off by saying one more thing: Please support our Women Champions on the sports fields as much as you do the men. They put in just as much work and deserve the same passionate, screaming South Africans our men enjoy week in and week out. As you know, I was at FNB Stadium last week and the support for the Springbok Women game against the Black Ferns was not great at all. It was an iconic game and deserved just as much support as the men got later that day. Calling a 5-0 whitewash for the Proteas Women and 10-point win for the Springbok Women on Friday.
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