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Three years. Three finals. Three losses. South Africa once again came agonisingly close to World Cup glory, only to fall short in the final stretch. In a 52-run loss to India in the final at the D.Y. Patil Stadium here on Sunday, the Proteas fought till the end in a challenging 299-run chase, but ran out of wickets and courage to close out a win.

“I thought we were in the chase for a very long time. We were pretty neck-and-neck with them. I thought mine and (Annerie) Derksen’s partnership was pretty big and thought we could keep it going till the end. She fell just as we were trying to launch into the back ten, and I fell soon after. I still thought Chloe Tryon and Nadine de Klerk could do it together, but I think we left Nades with a bit too much to do by herself,” skipper Laura Wolvaardt said after the game.

With a 39,555-strong crowd at the venue, the Proteas were in the hot seat all the way through.

“We could definitely feel pockets of pressure when we were batting. They (India) would take a few wickets, and then you really felt the pressure to hang in there and build partnerships again. We perhaps crumbled a little bit at the end there.”

India’s decision to hand Shafali Verma the ball took the side by surprise.

“Didn’t really expect her to bowl much, so a bit of a surprise factor from there. She just bowled really slowly and front of the hand and picked up a few wickets. You don’t want to lose wickets to a part-time bowler in a World Cup final. It was frustrating that she was able to pick up two and two big ones as well. We had to err on the side of caution to not give her any more wickets. She bowled pretty well. It was frustrating because she’s not really the person we planned for,” Wolvaardt explained.

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South Africa had many bright spots in its run in India and Sri Lanka. Disciplined seamers, brave performances from the lower order with the bat and Wolvaardt’s own imperious knockouts form stand out in a stellar campaign.

“I’m pretty proud of the way that we were able to play spin. It’s been a big talking point within this group. With it, we’ve made it to the final of a World Cup in subcontinent conditions too. The seamers had a good tournament too; at some points, they bowled better than our spinners, economy-wise.”

Two back-to-back centuries in the business end of the tournament also gave the captain some confidence in a year she labels as less than ideal with the bat.

“My ODI cricket has come a long way in this tournament. To win games, you have to be positive and aggressive. I have tried to explore that a bit in this tournament. It hasn’t been my best year in ODI cricket. I was a bit too conservative and one-dimensional. I am happy with the different options I was able to bring in through this tournament. Today, I scored quite a lot of legside runs or a few legside boundaries, which is something I’ve been working on to open up different spaces because teams often stack the offside and dot me up there.”

The 26-year-old opening batter insisted on now focusing on the positives of a spirited campaign.

“To make it all the way to the final is really awesome. We played some good cricket through this tournament. At one stage, we won five games in a row, which is really big for this group. We were searching for a consistency that we don’t necessarily have in bilaterals,” Wolvaardt said.

“Making the 2023 T20 World Cup final helped put domestic contracts in place, which was big for our depth as a team. The 2024 T20 World Cup final made us bigger names in cricket. We’re the team that is consistently making finals now, whereas before, it was maybe a one-time thing. I am really proud of making the finals three times in a row. It shows that we’re doing something right domestically and from a squad perspective. Hopefully, we can keep doing that and one day, we can win one!”

Published on Nov 03, 2025