Laura Wolvaardt is a perfectionist - head girl, almost (and could-still-be) medical doctor, world's classiest cover driver and leading run-scorer at the last three white-ball World Cups - so you'd know when she said this, she was holding back.
"With the bat, we probably haven't been at 100%," Wolvaardt said at the press conference before the semi-final. "All of our batters will admit they'd like to score a bit more runs, but I think it's a good thing and a pretty exciting thing because when they do come off, hopefully in the next game, it'll be a pretty good game."
Don't be surprised if the person she was referring to was herself.
Despite dominating global tournament run charts since 2023, Wolvaardt has had a relatively quiet tournament. Tazmin Brits has hit a hundred, Marizanne Kapp has played a match-winning knock and Annerie Dercksen has been the impact player with a half-century and a strike rate of 135.29. But Wolvaardt has failed to find fluency and lingers at fourth on South Africa's run charts and 25th overall. It's clearly not the tournament she wants to be having and she's not afraid to say so.
"I'm probably a bit annoyed with my tournament because I felt like I was in pretty good form coming into the competition and then had a couple of frustrating knocks," Wolvaardt said.
Before this World Cup, Wolvaardt was in the form of her life. In five innings against India in the home series, South Africa won 4-1, she scored three fifties (one was 92*) and a hundred and seemed in sublime touch. That was only two months ago, so what's gone wrong?
"I just need to maybe have a think over the next 24 hours of what went well for me back then. Obviously, it's so recent, it's not like my batting has changed. It's probably just a bit of a mindset thing," she said. "Maybe just trying to hit it a bit too hard, but I guess that's just the pressure of a World Cup. It's hard to stay super calm and chilled, but hopefully I'm able to do it tomorrow."
To hear Wolvaardt, the epitome of unfrazzled, saying that maybe the sense of occasion is getting to her is unexpected, but if you watch her innings, you can see it. At first, with Sune Luus as her partner for the opening two games, she struggled for strike in the powerplay. Then, with Tazmin Brits back to partnering her, there seemed to be a sense of caution, almost as though Wolvaardt was making sure that she could be out there for as long as possible in case no one else was able to.
She is clear on one thing: there's been no batting amnesia. "It's not like I've forgotten how to bat," she said. "It's just maybe one or two things haven't gone my way and then got a bit frustrated in the middle. I need to stay nice and calm tomorrow and maybe one or two nice shots and then I'm back."
South Africa will be thinking the same thing. Although they are among the last four teams standing, they do not look and feel like a team that has confidently marched their way into the knockouts. They only lost one game, against Australia - but did it badly - and then scraped their way to three wins, losing eight wickets chasing 126 against Pakistan, relying on a Kapp miracle against India (though that was decisive in the final standings), dominating the newcomers Netherlands, and then losing six wickets chasing 118 against Bangladesh.
If all that sounds too critical, consider that South Africa have a group stage net run-rate of 0.633, below India's 1.718 and had Pakistan 50 for 8 and Bangladesh 14 for 2 and could have closed those games out earlier.
Wolvaardt's frustration with herself could easily be a frustration with the team effort as a whole, as they did it the hard way and know they have not looked entirely convincing. "I don't know why we keep doing it to ourselves, starting with a really bad game. It's something we have addressed," Wolvaardt said. "We like to start World Cups with a loss and then kind of put ourselves under pressure near the back end."
South Africa lost the opening game of the 2023 T20 World Cup where they reached their first T20 final, and the first match of the 2025 ODI World Cup, where they advanced to their first ODI final. At least they can take comfort from knowing how well they recovered as they look for a repeat at the Oval.
"The good thing is that we find a way to show a bit of resilience and to end up making the semis," Wolvaardt said. "Having won all of our games in a row after that shows a bit of consistency, which is probably what we've been searching for the last couple of seasons. We're a side that can be quite up and down, so just to win a couple of games in a row against decent opposition was good, and hopefully we're able to do it for two more games."