Laura Wolvaardt pulls a Pat Cummins; eager to silence the Indian crowd in the WC 2025 Final

On Saturday, November 1, South African captain Laura Wolvaardt asserted that he would love to silence the Indian crowd in Navi Mumbai after defeating the Indian women’s team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, in the grand finale of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025.

Notably, similar comments were earlier made by the Australian captain Pat Cummins ahead of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 Final against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Interestingly, Cummins lived up to his words as Australia thumped India in the final to lift the silverware.

"Hopefully, we win. I guess that will silence them. Yeah,” Laura Wolvaardt said in the pre-match press conference. 

On the other hand, the South African opening batter Wolvaardt expects a high-scoring affair on a batting-friendly surface in the grand finale. She also reckoned staying really calm would be really important amid the big crowd in Navi Mumbai.

"Yeah, I enjoy it as a batter, but not so much as a captain. The super flat wickets. But like you said, obviously it's going to be a really big crowd, probably the biggest crowd that a lot of our goals have played in front of. A lot of eyeballs on the game, a lot of added pressure and probably pretty batting friendly," She added.

"So it might be pretty high scoring, which is why I think if we're just able to stay really calm, it'll be really important. It may feel like there's a lot happening tomorrow, with boundaries and the crowd and the noise, but I think we just need to stay as grounded as possible and as focused as we can on the moment and what we need to do," She asserted. 

South Africa defeated England in the first semi-final quite comfortably to make it to the grand finale. On the other hand, India stunned Australia in the second semi-final to make it to the final.

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