In the first semi-final of the 2025 Women's World Cup, South Africa captain Laura Walward played a historic innings against England and scored a brilliant century. Laura scored these important runs when other batsmen were struggling to score runs. Laura Walward achieved a feat with this century that no other South African women player had achieved before.
Laura Volward's Historic Century
Laura Volward was in good form right from the start of this match. She scored runs against almost every bowler and completed her century in 115 balls. This marked the 10th time in her ODI career that she crossed the 100-run mark. However, the highlight was that Laura Volward scored the first century in the history of Women's World Cup.
First captain to score a century in a World Cup knockout
Not only this, she also became the first world captain to score a century in a knockout match of the Women's World Cup. In this match he faced a total of 143 balls and scored 169 runs. His innings consisted of 20 fours and 4 sixes.
One of the all-time greats @cricketworldcup knocks from Proteas skipper Laura Wolvaardt
Watch #ENGvSA LIVE in your region, #CWC25 broadcast details here
https://t.co/ULC9AuHQ4P pic.twitter.com/Qjlhdx4Nk9
— ICC (@ICC) October 29, 2025
First African batsman to do so
Laura Volward also completed 5,000 runs in her ODI career during this match. She became the sixth batsman in the history of women's ODI cricket to complete the 5,000-run mark. He is also the first South African batsman to achieve this feat. Additionally, she also became the first captain to score 450 runs in a single edition of the Women's ODI World Cup.
Smriti equaled Mandhana's record
In this match, Laura Walward has created another record by scoring 50+ runs. He has now tied Smriti Mandhana's record for most 50+ runs as an opener in ODIs. Laura Volward has scored 50+ runs in ODIs 48 times so far. Smriti Mandhana has also achieved this feat 48 times.
Also Read: IND W vs AUS W: India-Australia World Cup semi-final not to be played? Bad news coming from Mumbai!
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