The crowd, expected to turn up in good numbers on Sunday, will be India Women’s 12th player in the ODI World Cup final against their South African counterparts at the DY Patil Stadium. South Africa Women captain Laura Wolvaardt would only be too happy to keep the home crowd quiet.

“Hopefully, we’ll win. I guess that will silence the crowd,” was the calm Wolvaardt’s cheeky remark at the pre-final news conference on Saturday, as her teammates got down to training on the eve of their first-ever ODI Cup final appearance.

The crowd support may backfire as well for India, as the home team will have to deal with the pressure of expectations, the South Africa skipper warned. “I think it puts a lot of pressure on them (India) as well. They have the whole country behind them and are expected to win.”

Sunday will also be the first instance where neither Australia nor England feature in the decider of the Women’s ODI World Cup. The World Cup, therefore, will have new champions this time.

Wolvaardt agreed it’s a good sign for women’s cricket. “I think it’s very exciting that we have a potential new champion of the World Cup. It just shows how much the women’s game is developing and how different countries are being able to use new resources and develop really good quality cricketers.

“Like you’ve seen with the Indian team... In the WPL (Women’s Premier League), many new cricketers have surfaced and what good cricket they’ve been playing lately. I think we’ve also come a long way as a team and am really proud of the strides that we’ve made in the last couple of years,” the skipper said.

Though South Africa had lost to Australia in the 2023 T20 World Cup final, their first appearance in a Cup decider that day (February 26) had a deep impact on South African women’s cricket, Wolvaardt acknowledged. “Since then, we’ve seen domestic contracts introduced back at home. So yeah, we now have the opportunity to go one step further.”