The more finals you play, the closer you get to winning one. That was what South Africa told themselves after they reached three in three years (four if you count the men in the 2024 T20 World Cup, five if you count the Under-19 Women's World Cup). What no one told them is that the more finals you play, the worse it will feel when you don't make one. That's what they experienced at The Oval on Thursday night.
After a campaign that looked scratchy from the start, South Africa's shortcomings were exposed by a better team who did not allow them to scrape over the line. Honestly, that's all they were doing before this after they made hard work of chases against Pakistan and Bangladesh and relied on one-woman heroics from Marizanne Kapp against India. Their match against Netherlands was the closest they came to a complete performance. Consider that the Dutch are tournament debutants who went winless and that already tells you how far off the pace South Africa were.
The problems were known before the semi-final but in case you missed it, here's a recap. Laura Wolvaardt, the leading run-scorer at the last three ICC events has struggled to find her touch; her opening partner changed from Sune Luus to Tazmin Brits mid-tournament which did not help; Annerie Dercksen had only batted at No. 3 twice before this event and the last time was October 2024; Dane van Niekerk had barely played since reversing her retirement last last year and Chloe Tryon and Nadine de Klerk don't spend enough time in the middle to have any form behind them. That's one half of it.
On the bowling front, while bringing Shabnim Ismail back looked like a masterstroke, it also quickly became a case of placing all the eggs in one basket. Kapp and Ismail rolled back the years to form a perfect new-ball pair but there wasn't much after them. While Ayabonga Khaka was decent at the death, she seemed to lack role clarity earlier on and de Klerk remains too inconsistent to be reliable. South Africa didn't play any other seamers and the lack of variety in the attack as a whole has been criticised.
In the immediate aftermath, head coach Mandla Mashimbyi was not quite ready to dissect the issues and said he didn't think "it's time for us to nitpick" but acknowledged the lack of a second specialist spinner to partner Nonkululeko Mlaba was a problem. "With another frontline spinner, we will be better off," he said.
They didn't quite have another specialist spinner in the semi-final but the inclusion of Luus over van Niekerk did give them another bowling option. And then, Wolvaardt chose not to use it. In the passage of play where Nat Sciver-Brunt and Heather Knight put on a fourth-wicket partnership of 133, South Africa tried Tryon and then alternated between de Klerk, Khaka and Mlaba to no avail. Could a different type of bowler have helped? They'll never know but an effort must be made to find a legspinner (Seshnie Naidu was part of the last T20 World Cup squad and should be developed) and a left-arm seamer.
Mashimbyi already appears to be thinking along those lines, but instead of looking forward he brought Ismail back. "We had too many of the same type of bowlers and teams could work out what we're trying to do," he said.
You could argue that was the case anyway because of the lack of penetration after Kapp and Ismail and equally with the batting where South Africa do not have players who can find other gears. Wolvaardt is an anchor, Brits is a run-a-ball player, Kapp is a trump card who will do a big job occasionally and de Klerk is a finisher but they need someone who can build an innings. Dercksen could become that player but only if she stops trying to hit every ball out of the park, which seems to be what South Africa want.
"We are a power team," Mashimbyi said. "Today was probably testament to that in terms of us not scoring enough boundaries. If you don't score boundaries in T20 cricket, you're going to be found wanting."
South Africa were the team with the most number of tournament sixes before this match and Dercksen, with six, is still the leading six-hitter. That's a skill South Africa want to keep but they also need to develop her touch game, and their overall approach to spin. Between them, England's spinners took 4 for 77 in 12 overs which strangled South Africa beyond recovery.
Perhaps the saving grace is that South Africa didn't get close enough to their target of 170 to set hearts aflutter and they cannot be accused of the dreaded choke. They were simply outplayed, and have been through many phases of this tournament including at the beginning, where they lost to Australia.
In the broader South African cricketing context, this concludes a forgettable first half of the year. Just four months ago, the men's side emerged from a strong group stage to play so far beneath themselves at the T20 World Cup against New Zealand in the semi-final. Their performance, especially when they sat 77 for 5 in the 11th over, resurrected questions about South Africans and pressure. That's the lowest hanging fruit but it cannot be the only reason South Africa still don't have a World Cup in the cabinet.
Once the dust settles, the women's set-up will have to look at some of the structural concerns and maybe even go back to West Indies' captain Hayley Matthews' words about the resource gap in the global game. South Africa are in a much better position than West Indies, both financially and from a depth of talent of perspective, but that doesn't mean they can match England, Australia or India.
Crucially, South Africa doesn't have one of the biggest things those three countries have: a women's franchise T20 league. Speaking exclusively to Cricinfo afterwards Mlaba said: "If we had a league, maybe it could change the way we play. They play more cricket and they play against the best players in the world. They are used to pressure games."
As things stand, a women's SA20 is off the cards as the WPL is now played in the January window, there is no other viable time in the calendar and there is a concern about whether the quality of domestic cricket in South Africa is good enough for a privately owned league. The SA20 does run a schools' league, which includes a girls' competition, so a pipeline is being created but it could be years before that pays off.
For now, this team has to sit with the deep disappointment of another tournament ending without a trophy. While Mlaba described what she and her team-mates are going through as "hurt," Mashimbyi almost had to take a different position to avoid the scars from settling.
"What pain?" He laughed when asked about the mood in the dressing room. "You just lose and you learn. And we've learned a lot in this World Cup. We're going to make sure that we go back to the drawing board and put things in place that's going to make us even more dangerous and even better as a team.
"We know where our gaps are, and that's the only thing we can do really. We can't change the results. It's about the work that we put in going forward and making sure that when we get an opportunity to play a World Cup again or an ICC tournament, we are sitting at the same table as other teams."
South Africa have a break before their home summer starts with a trip to Zimbabwe in September. They will also host India and Australia next season, with each of those opposition due to play a Test in South Africa alongside white-ball fixtures.