South Africa bid to turn semi-final tears to triumph at third time of asking

The stark similarity between the two captains' press conferences, before the England versus South Africa semi-final, was what preceded them. Out came a slender, black bottle of spray from a corner and it headed straight for the captain's chair. The right index finger of the lady holding it came down at the top and sprayed it all over the chair, covered in a black cloth, with a long hissing sound. She did it twice, indiscriminately in the same manner, for the same duration, and with the same dedication.

There was a deep sense of faith residing in that mosquito repellent, as it dampened the black cloth only a few minutes before each press conference; that it would do the job as soon as it was asked, not unlike the expectations the captains demand of their players, whether with bat or ball in a pressure situation, especially like a semi-final.

Laura Wolvaardt arrived first. The first question thrown at her was about the one-sided rivalry between England and South Africa in ODIs - which stands at 36-10 - and especially England not letting South Africa go past the semi-finals in the last two editions, in 2022 and 2017.

"I think if we just keep playing the way that we have, we'll have a really good shot at winning tomorrow," Wolvaardt said ever so softly, moving the bare minimum muscles on her face, almost weighed down by the occasion and the expectations. "I think we want to win tomorrow. So do they. It's a semi-final, anything can happen. So, I think that if we just play our best cricket, it'll be a really good game of cricket."

Wolvaardt even spoke of the opposition, while being that extra bit careful about not promising anything on her team's behalf. The possible outcomes she presented were also carefully prefaced by "if".

Wolvaardt had been in both those semi-final defeats. She witnessed from close quarters the tears of Dane van Niekerk in 2017, as she and her inconsolable team-mates sat around on the field after the two-wicket loss, with the fiery Marizanne Kapp burying her head in her hands. Five years later, Wolvaardt lasted just two balls for a duck after being South Africa's leading scorer in the league stage, and they crumbled for 156 in a tall chase, admitting later that they didn't put their best foot forward when it mattered.

Last year Wolvaardt took over the captaincy in full-time capacity, led South Africa to the final of the T20 World Cup, even going past the mighty Australians in the semi-final. On that occasion, however, her team floundered at the final frontier, to New Zealand, who were not even among the favourites to win the title. It was perhaps the occasion that got to them again; Kapp in tears at the national anthem even before the match had begun while Wolvaardt tried to keep everyone calm. Again, Wolvaardt saw her team-mates shedding tears and even saw her parents "more sad" than her, in her own words.

Wolvaardt didn't want to get ahead of herself this time.

"I think, for me, tomorrow it'll just be about keeping everyone as calm as possible," she said on Tuesday. "I think the calmest team out there will most likely win. I think 50 overs is a very long time and it's very easy to let the pressure of a semi-final get to you. But I think it's still just a game of cricket and there'll be ups and downs within the game, and I think the team that rides those waves the best throughout the 100-over game will come out on top. [It's about] keeping everyone calm. Obviously we'll have our plans in place, so trying to stick to those as best as we can. I think we're really well prepared as a group, so just trusting and believing in that preparation that we've done as well."

Wolvaardt's entire press conference was done in under six minutes. About an hour later came her counterpart Nat Sciver-Brunt, who looked as different as she possibly could from Wolvaardt. Sciver-Brunt first peeked into the room while holding the door ajar, quickly checking if things were in order and it was time for her to arrive. Once she sat on the assigned chair on the podium, she joked around with her media manager, expressed surprise at the mic booming her voice around the room as if it was not supposed to, and then looked completely at ease once the questions started.

"I'm excited for tomorrow, I guess," she started off by saying. "I'm massively excited to be in the knockout stages of this World Cup and, yeah, really excited to take on the game tomorrow."

Like Wolvaardt, Sciver-Brunt was also quickly reminded of how these two teams had started against each other in this World Cup when South Africa had imploded for 69.

"That was obviously a long time ago in the tournament, and since then we've played a lot of games. But, yeah, South Africa obviously have had some brilliant games since then and are a dangerous side."

It was as if England were showing more faith in South Africa than South Africa were in themselves.

"See, that game was pretty crazy," Sciver-Brunt said. "Obviously a brilliant start from our side in this competition. But not what we would have expected from South Africa."

In her 14-minute long press conference - also because there were a lot more questions - Sciver-Brunt looked seemingly unfazed by the pressure or the magnitude of the occasion. She soon joined her team-mates at the nets where the experienced head coach Charlotte Edwards had started the drills, the music was blaring on the team's Bluetooth speaker on the extreme left, and the mood appeared a bit more cheery than when South Africa trained there.

Will they make it three out of three in semi-finals against South Africa or will South Africa see that third time's the charm?