Laura Wolvaardt looked like she was forcing a smile as she raised her bat to her first World Cup century, and 10th overall in ODIs. It may have been because, at 200 for 5 in the 40th over, there was still work to be done, but it's more likely because that's just who she is. Focused. Clinical. As she says, someone who "likes my statistics and overthinks about cricket", but needs to "enjoy the good moments a bit more." Others would say someone who is ice cold. Marizanne Kapp has played more ODIs for South Africa than anyone else and in five World Cups but her tears still flow at the national anthem like she is hearing it for the first time.

In fact, she even cried two days before this match because she had "one of the worst net sessions in the last 10 years of my career." Take that same softie and put a ball in her hand and something changes. She steams in, swings it, smashes stumps. Pure fire. Together they were the perfect combination as South Africa simmered and boiled before they froze England on their way to their first World Cup final. The temperatures have been a talking point throughout this World Cup and South Africa's semi-final one was perfect. 

Forget everything that came before, because South Africa did. Semi-final losses in 2017 and 2022 to the same team they would play today? Irrelevant. Most of the players from those matches are not here, there's a different coaching set-up, things have changed. Sixty-nine all out just 26 days ago, against the same opponents and on the same ground? Also irrelevant. Blow-outs happen and another happened just four days ago against Australia. As the saying goes, it's not how you start… A bilateral record of 36 losses in 47 previous meetings with England including only one win in their last eight?

The most irrelevant of all because South Africa are now a team that can turn up when the pressure's on. They have reached their third successive women's final and fifth successive final across all formats and genders (T20 World Cup finals for both men and women in 2024, Under-19 Women's World Cup final and World Test Championship final in 2025), and they've managed it because their big players step up in big moments. No bigger than Wolvaardt, their leading ODI run-scorer and, and Kapp, the world's leading seam-bowling allrounder. 

It's fair to say neither was dominating the World Cup conversation before this match. Though Wolvaardt had scored three crucial half-centuries in the group stage, she hadn't grabbed the headlines like finisher Nadine de Klerk. This year, she had been overshadowed by her opening partner Tazmin Brits, who had scored five hundreds and had been, in Wolvaardt's words, "carrying me". Brits has been all or nothing at this tournament, and today she tried to find the middle ground. She also quickly realised that Wolvaardt was having the better day.

"I didn't want to block up Wolfie, because she was seeing the ball really nicely," Brits said afterwards, explaining the out-of-character reverse sweep she played that resulted in her being bowled by Sophie Ecclestone. "But I know if Wolf and I come off, that's what sets the team up for 280." Wolvaardt was batting breezily, with her first fifty coming off 52 balls, but when Brits was dismissed and then South Africa lost three wickets for three runs, she had to be more cautious. Her next fifty took 63 balls and it seemed she was going too slowly, but she had a plan.

"The main goal was to get to 40 overs," Wolvaardt said. "Once we got to 40, I felt my job was done for the day." By then, she also had a hundred, the only one by a captain in a World Cup knockout game. She decided she'd set things up for the finishers Chloe Tryon and de Klerk, and "just try and whack, almost like a free hit." The whacking brought her another 69 runs in 28 balls, including four sixes. She had only hit 13 in her ODI career up to then.

Her plundering of runs over the on side showed off a whole new side to her game: not just leg-side play for the owner of the world's most drooled-over cover drive, but power-hitting leg-side play. She took down Linsey Smith, South Africa's nemesis from 69 all out, in an over that cost 20 in a full-circle moment for her team. Wolvaardt is now the leading run-scorer at this World Cup, and this innings could be as defining for her as Harmanpreet Kaur's 171* against Australia in Derby was in 2017.

It is career-defining whatever happens in the final, but it will be a once-in-a-generation-feat if it ends up being the innings that set South Africa up for the trophy. Ultimately, that is what they want to gift players like Kapp who, though she hasn't said it, is probably playing her last ODI World Cup. Before this tournament, Kapp told ESPNcricinfo that she didn't think her career would be complete without a major trophy. "I almost feel like it doesn't matter what you have achieved over your career, if you don't have a World Cup, it's just not the same," she said before leaving for the tournament in September.

"I'm scared that I might retire the day I win a World Cup. It would just be absolutely amazing."And she has taken them to the brink. Everyone will talk about Kapp's figures of 5 for 20 and especially her opening over, and they should. The delivery that dismissed Amy Jones was a beauty. It nipped back in, found the bat-pad gap, and took out off and middle stumps. Kapp unleashed a near-vein-bursting celebration close to the pitch, where rage combined with unadulterated joy, before she composed herself to dismiss Heather Knight three balls later.

That was the one that moved away, which Knight didn't need to play at but inside-edged onto her stumps. South Africa had all but won the game then, and that may not even have been the most important hand Kapp played. Without her 33-ball 42, South Africa's innings may not have had an injection of impetus at just the right moment. And who knows what might have happened had she not returned for a second spell and got rid of Nat Sciver-Brunt just as the England captain was starting to cause concern. Kapp's last three incisions came in the space of seven balls, all caught behind.

She should have had another but Sinalo Jafta could not hold onto a chance, diving to her right. In that spell, rather than movement, Kapp relied on discipline, just landing the ball from where it could kiss the edge, and ended up bagging her career-best figures when the team needed it most. That's what makes this special for her. "To be honest, I probably haven't had the best World Cup personally. So coming into this game, I knew I was due a good performance," she said.

"In past semi-finals I probably haven't been at my best either, and have not contributed the way I should have. So I'm really happy that tonight I could make a difference in the result. It's just the love of the sport. That's why we play, because we just love cricket so much. And I absolutely love playing for South Africa." That's why Kapp has always carried the fire, and she may be teaching someone like Wolvaardt to thaw a little. 

A broad grin attached itself to the South Africa captain's face at the end and it almost succeeded in hiding where her mind was already going. "We have experience from the last [T20] World Cup when we had that amazing game in the semi-final [against Australia] and that almost felt like too big of a high. We played our final before the final," she said. "It will be really important to regroup after this and know we still have a big game against a good opposition."

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)