Omens are, almost by definition, mysterious. We can't even be certain that we've seen them. What happened between Harmanpreet Kaur's and Laura Wolvaardt's press conferences at Kingsmead on Thursday was a case in point.
As Wolvaardt shifted her chair closer to the microphones, the bottles on the table - two each of the sponsors' energy drink and water, carefully placed to ensure the cameras couldn't avoid capturing their logos - toppled over. They were quickly righted with the help of South Africa's media manager.
But a thought took hold...
Was that an omen? If so, what was it trying to convey?
That South Africa would topple opponents they have beaten only six times in the 19 T20Is they have contested when the five-match series in the format starts in Durban on Friday? Or that the home side would right what went wrong for them in New Zealand in recent weeks, when they lost six of the eight white-ball games they played?
To accomplish the first, they will have to closely examine the latter. Had they?
"We've been trying to fix things," Wolvaardt said. "I think we've identified where we went wrong.
"With the ball it was in our execution. The plans were there, but we didn't bowl to our field placings and we didn't bowl in line with what we were trying to do. These last few days it's been about being precise in what we're trying to do - land the ball in the areas that we want to for longer periods of time.
"With the bat we've got to be more proactive - rotate [the strike] better, have a couple of different shots up our sleeve. Also in the last few days, we've been precise about the shots we want to play and we've drilled them hard. I think there was a positioning thing with the bat as well. Some of us maybe lose our shapes just a little bit. We've zoned in on that."
There was acres of space for improvement. Nine of the top 10 scores across both formats were made by New Zealanders. Seven of the eight bowlers South Africa deployed in the T20Is conceded more than eight runs an over, compared to only one of the seven Kiwis used.
So what Wolvaardt said on Thursday sounds like progress in the wake of Mandla Mashimbyi's comments after the New Zealand tour: "You realise where you've gone wrong, and it's not things you haven't done before. The gaps we had were in concentration or awareness. It costs you dearly, and that was the case for the whole series. That's what we need to brush up on and make sure that against India we leave no stone unturned."
Or no bottle untoppled. But the Indians won't fall easily. The teams are ranked closely enough, with India third and South Africa fifth. Even so, a closer look exposes disparities.
Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Jemima Rodrigues are all in the top 10 batting rankings. Wolvaardt is the only South African firmly on the list, albeit Tazmin Brits shares 10th place with Rodrigues.
Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh and Arundhati Reddy are all among the top 10 bowlers. The closest South African is Nonkululeko Mlaba, who is 11th.
On top of that, South Africa's home-ground advantage could prove largely theoretical. Durban - where Sunday's match will also be played - is home to most of the country's population of south Asian heritage, which means Wolvaardt's team can't bank on undivided support from the stands.
"We did speak about it, that it could be more of an away crowd than a home crowd," she said. "But it will be awesome just to have people at the game. I think it'll be a cool mix of South African supporters and Indian fans. I think it'll create more of a buzz and more of a vibe than maybe what we're used to at home games.
"The last time we played against them we had 60,000-odd Indian fans in the stands. It couldn't get worse than that."
That was in the World Cup final in Navi Mumbai in November last year, when India won by 52 runs. The start of another World Cup, the T20I version, looms in England in 58 days' time. If you look hard enough there's probably another omen in there somewhere.
