Cricket scores are higher than ever before, sixes are hit further, balls are bowled faster and catches are taken from heights and positions that people thought human bodies could not reach. The game is evolving in ways that did not seem possible, more so the women’ s game which is almost unrecognisable from the sport it was when the first T20 World Cup was played 17 years ago.
In England in 2009, eight teams competed in a 10-day tournament that flew largely under the radar. In 2026, 12 teams will be in the country and will spend more than three weeks in front of sold-out stadiums and receive extensive media coverage. Attendance and viewership could reach historic highs but records on the field are expected to be broken too and there are several South Africans in the mix to do that.
All eyes will be on captain Laura Wolvaardt, who was leading run-scorer in both the 2023 and 2024 editions of the T20 World Cup and the 2025 ODI tournament. Her ability to rack up runs has come alongside a more aggressive approach, but Wolvaardt herself is much more bashful about why she tops the table.
“ It helps that we played three finals so I had slightly more games than the rest. It ' s often a player who plays in the final who ' s able to break that record,” she said.
Does she think she can do it again?“ Obviously [ it would ] be very cool to get the most runs, but T20 cricket nowadays is all about impact, so I’ ll just be looking to make an impact in every game that I play,” she said.
She does, however, have a reason to hope the top run-scorers come from her team“ because that means we ' re playing a lot of games and we ' ll be in the tournament for a long time.”
The teams are divided into two groups of six and will play five matches each. The top two from each pool will progress to the semi-finals. South Africa are in Group 1 with Australia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and newcomers Netherlands. Given the strength of the sides, it is likely that the knockout places will be decided between South Africa, Australia and India and only two can advance.
The Proteas play their opening game on 13 June against Australia, who are six-time champions in this format but were beaten by South Africa in the semifinal in 2024 and are a team in transition. South Africa will then return to play India in Manchester eight days later and with the confidence that they beat them 4-1 in a home series in April. In between those matches they take on Pakistan, who they also beat during the home summer.
Central to South Africa’ s chances, especially against high-profile sides, will be the strength and variation of their bowling attack. In
Marizanne Kapp, they have one of the game’ s best swing bowlers, in Ayabonga Khaka, a seamer with excellent control and now they also have the world’ s quickest back in their ranks. At the age of 37, Shabnim Ismail reversed her international retirement to play at this event and could send the speed gun into overdrive.
No woman has sent a ball down quicker than the 132.1kph Ismail clocked for the Mumbai Indians in the Women’ s Premier League in March 2024. Could she push 135kph? Wolvaardt thinks so.
“ For fastest ball, I definitely think Shabnim can do that. She’ s already bowled the quickest ball ever so it would be awesome if she breaks that, especially coming back from retirement. That would put out a really big statement,” Wolvaardt said.
Bowling speeds are still going to be secondary to batting quickly with the gauntlet laid down for the fastest fifty in the format by Pakistan’ s captain Fatima Sana, who scored hers off 15 balls against Zimbabwe in May. Though it will take some beating, South Africa have a fearless finisher in Kayla Reyneke, who will be one to watch.
“ With Kayla’ s ball-striking ability, I can picture her coming in at the back of an innings and absolutely smashing a really quick fifty,” Wolvaardt said.
If that happens, it also means some huge totals could be scored and even chased down. So far, there has only been one instance of a women’ s team successfully chasing a score of more than 200, and it belongs to West Indies, who achieved the feat against Australia.
With the way the game is going, there could be a much longer list by the end of this World Cup.“ Bigger scores are being scored and being chased down, in the last two or three years especially. I wouldn ' t be surprised if this World Cup has a lot of high scores,” Wolvaardt said.
Saturday, 13 June at 3:30pm South Africa v Australia Old Trafford, Manchester
Wednesday, 17 June at 7:30pm South Africa v Pakistan Edgbaston, Birmingham
Sunday, 21 June at 3:30pm South Africa v India Old Trafford, Manchester
Thursday, 25 June at 7:30pm South Africa v Netherlands Bristol County Ground, Bristol
Sunday, 28 June at 11:30am South Africa v Bangladesh Lord’ s, London
Playoffs
Semi-finals: 30 June & 2 July The Oval, London
Final: 5 July Lord’ s, London
FEATURE
Tazmin Brits, Annerie Dercksen, Nadine de Klerk, Shabnim Ismail, Sinalo Jafta, Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka, Suné Luus, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Karabo Meso, Kayla Reyneke, Tumi Sekhukhune, Chloé Tryon, Dané van Niekerk and Laura Wolvaardt( captain). www. modernathlete. co. za 23