A stuttering campaign with the bat came to a painful conclusion for the Proteas at The Oval on Thursday as they were knocked out of the T20 World Cup in a 40-run loss to England.
Chasing 170 in the semifinal, in front of a partisan home ground, the Proteas struggled to get up to the required run rate, and lost wickets at regular intervals. They finished on 129/8 and there will be plenty of questions for a batting unit that came into the tournament looking good on paper. The Proteas never lived up to their stated desire to play more boldly and as a result lacked fluency.
Captain Laura Wolvaardt, so prodigious at World Cups, had her worst tournament for many years and suffered another failure on Thursday making just 17 in a competition in which her highest score of 45 came against the Netherlands.
