Proteas Women captain Laura Wolvaardt believes South Africa are still waiting for their best performance of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup – an encouraging sign as they prepare for Thursday’s semi-final against hosts England.

Despite recovering from an opening defeat to Australia to win four consecutive matches and book a place in the last four, Wolvaardt insists there is still more to come from her side.

“I think what’s exciting about it is we’ve made the semis and we probably haven’t even been at our best as a team yet,” Wolvaardt said.

“I think we’ve found a way to win games, which has been good. Been on the winning side more often than not.”

The Proteas now face an England side backed by a sold-out home crowd at The Oval, but Wolvaardt believes that could bring added pressure for the hosts.

“It’ll be a pretty sold-out crowd supporting the opposition, so it’ll be a nice challenge for us.”

“I think they’ll have a bit more pressure on them with all of that support, so hopefully we can put together a good game of cricket.”

South Africa’s bowling attack has been one of the standout performers throughout the tournament, with Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail consistently providing breakthroughs in the powerplay.

“I think our bowling has been pretty good,” Wolvaardt said.

“Having Kapi and Shibby up early in the power play has been a big boost for us.”

“We’ve been able to strike early in the power play and then in the middle and death overs we’ve been able to really keep teams quiet.”

While pleased with the bowling unit, Wolvaardt admitted the batting group is still searching for its best form.

“With the bat, we probably haven’t been at 100%.”

“I think all of our batters will admit they’d like to score a bit more runs.”

Rather than seeing that as a concern, the captain believes it gives the Proteas another level they can still reach.

“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.”

South Africa were forced to grind out victories against Pakistan and Bangladesh after allowing the run chases to become more complicated than necessary.

Although satisfied with the results, Wolvaardt believes her side can be more ruthless in knockout cricket.

“We have definitely chatted about it that if we do find ourselves in a similar position, to maybe kill the game earlier.”

“I think we’re blessed with a lot of power in our line-up, so we have that opportunity to go a bit harder earlier.”

The captain also admitted she has been frustrated with her own batting during the tournament after arriving in England in excellent form.

“I felt like I was in pretty good form coming into the competition.”

“I’ve had a couple of frustrating knocks, maybe just trying to hit it a bit too hard.”

Despite that, Wolvaardt remains confident a big innings is around the corner.

“I think it’s just maybe one or two things haven’t gone my way.”

“I just need to stay nice and calm tomorrow and maybe one or two nice shots and then I’m back.”

South Africa will also draw confidence from recent World Cup meetings with England, having defeated them in the semi-finals of both the 2023 T20 World Cup and the 2025 ODI World Cup.

“We’ve been able to beat England twice in knockout phases in World Cups.”

“So it’s not like it’s super foreign territory for us.”

The victory at Newlands in 2023 remains one of the highlights of Wolvaardt’s career.

“Probably one of the more special games in my career.”

“To be able to make finals for the first time was super special.”

“Our team hasn’t changed too much since then.”

“I think it should just give us confidence knowing that we’ve done it before.”

Another encouraging sign for the Proteas has been the resilience they have shown throughout the tournament.

For the second successive World Cup, South Africa recovered from an opening defeat to reach the semi-finals.

“I don’t know why we keep doing it to ourselves, starting with a really bad game,” Wolvaardt joked.

“But I think the good thing is that we find a way to show a bit of resilience.”

Having won four matches in a row, she believes the team has found the consistency it has been searching for.

“I think having won all of our games in a row after that shows a bit of consistency.”

“Hopefully we’re able to do it for two more games.”

Wolvaardt also believes South Africa’s batting line-up is stronger than it was two years ago, with the emergence of several powerful hitters adding a new dimension to the side.

“We’ve got a bit more power to add to the batting.”

“It’s been a big focus of ours.”

“We have a lot of young talent that are just really good at it.”

“Maybe that’s what we need to finally get over the line.”

With another World Cup semi-final awaiting, the Proteas know they will need to produce their best performance of the tournament.

If Wolvaardt is right, that performance may still be waiting to come.