Heather Knight had forewarned her teammates of this. Teammates, who’d gotten used to commanding bigger audiences everywhere they go of late. When the Women’s T20 World Cup had to be taken out of Bangladesh – a cricket-crazy community that throngs the stadiums irrespective of their teams’ footing – to the scorching UAE heat, Knight was pragmatic about the prospect of playing in near-empty stadiums. It is, perhaps, why the families of teammates travelled for support, including a pregnant Katherine Sciver-Brunt. That English contingent of roughly 200-odd, interspersed with a few family members of the Africans though, wouldn’t let any opportunity slip of making their support for the team evident. A neutral band, meanwhile, kept the sparse crowd at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium entertained with 90s Bollywood bangers. It was as if to even out the decibel levels that the venue DJ decided to switch allegiance to South Africa, blaring Shakira’s ‘This Time for Africa’ to celebrate each of their successes, which weren’t a lot on Monday.

Amongst the fair few times he refrained from cueing in the Waka Waka was when South Africa lost its first wicket in the powerplay – the one time where it perhaps fitted the most. It was time for yet another new reveal at no. 3 – this time from Africa.

Despite posting the best first-innings total among any of the four who had previously batted on Sharjah’s two-paced track, South Africa’s 124 felt short. By at least 10 to 20 runs in their own captain’s assessment. And, as much as it was for the lack of trying in the middle-overs, it was also perhaps an unnecessary experimentation that shackled South Africa. After the openers had provided a solid platform to build on, Anneke Bosch’s struggles in the middle stalled the team’s scoring rate in what was boundary-less seven successive overs of the nine in the middle-overs phase, leaving the backend finishers playing catch-up.

Now, South Africa’s usual no. 3 is Marizanne Kapp. She has been for a while, ever since a near-similar call to overhaul the approach at one-drop position was taken at the 2018 World Cup in West indies, in conditions not too dissimilar. In 36 innings since, Kapp had accumulated 856 runs in that role for South Africa, including her career-best 75, making that position her own.

With openers Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits polishing off the modest sub-120 chase all by themselves against West Indies in their tournament opener, South Africa never revealed who their no. 3 was. It shouldn’t have had that element of intrigue attached to it in the first place. Bosch’s promotion at one-drop came only in the three-match series in Pakistan, and in her first game she scored a duck. However, with the Africans resting Kapp for the remaining two games, Bosch managed to not only retain her place at no. 3 and but also gained confidence in the role with scores of 24, followed by a 46 not out in the series decider that her team won.

In challenging conditions in Sharjah though, it became difficult for Bosch to emulate that success. England operated primarily with spin – they had only bowled two overs of medium-pace from Nat Sciver-Brunt until the 15th, and were tracking seven minutes ahead of time at one point. On a two-paced track, Bosch found the four-pronged spin attack difficult to put away with Sophie Ecclestone, especially, creating two chances off her early. To be fair, Bosch did then finally break the shackles with the first ball of the 14th over to sweep Sarah Glenn to the fence and go to 18 off 24. However, a premeditated sweep off the very next delivery saw the end of a mostly arduous innings from Bosch. Kapp then arrived and launched a busy 17-ball cameo worth 24 that eventually pushed South Africa’s score to triple digits.

On the contrary, England’s chase showcased the wonders of role clarity and stability. Tight bowling with the new ball from Kapp and Ayabonga Khaka meant England were actually faring well behind South Africa’s corresponding score in the powerplay when they lost their first wicket in the fifth over. However, Alice Capsey’s arrival and a brief cameo paved the way for victory.

It helped that Wolvaardt coincidentally fed Capsey spin straight up, and she swept Chloe Tryon to the legside fence to make it a 12-run final over of PowerPlay, before also launching one over mid-off. Tryon’s two-over spell cost 19, and she was promptly taken off the attack. A well-set Danni Wyatt-Hodge finally began to free her arms too eventually, and had the assured company of Nat Sciver-Brunt to see through the chase, but England had Capsey’s handy 16-ball 19 to thank for helping them catch-up on the asking rate before they fell too far behind the eight ball. Only once had South Africa defended a total successfully against England in WT20Is, which happened to be the 2023 World Cup semifinal in Cape Town, and Capsey, in a way, ensured the record would stay like that for now at least.

India are already under scrutiny for cheekily announcing a sixth new batter in this World Cup cycle as their new no. 3 on the eve of their tournament opener, which they lost by 58 runs and then quickly rejigged again. Pakistan, too, have been guilty of not showcasing a stable batting order, with Aliya Riaz getting demoted in the home series against South Africa last month but again climbing up the order despite skipper Fatima Sana’s impressive numbers in a middle-order role.

The bright side of things though is that, as Wolvaardt admitted, South Africa are open to changes the team management may deem fit.

“She’s traditionally batted three for us in the past but Anneke was striking it really well leading up to this and Marizanne, obviously, has quite a hectic workload as a seaming all-rounder. But yeah I think that’s something that our batting coach Baakier [Abrahams] has been thinking about for many hours in his room, and I’m sure he has a reason behind the lineup as it is. But, yeah, definitely open to any changes,” said Wolvaardt after the seven-wicket loss that saw them slip to third spot in the Group B standings.

South Africa have got two of their toughest group fixtures out of the way at this World Cup already, and the second half potentially offers ample chance to improve on that net run-rate that’s not so much of a headache for them currently in their pool. It’s also both games in Dubai for them next, a venue Wolvaardt rated better than Sharjah’s slow outfield which didn’t provide as much “value for shots”. However, if they were to look inwardly after the defeat to England, embracing stability in UAE’s challenging batting conditions may be the only fool-proof way of securing the ticket to knockouts and beyond.