Batting is "sort of my job", Laura Wolvaardt told a press conference at the Wanderers on Wednesday. Even for one of the coolest, calmest, most collected figures in the game, that is an astonishing understatement.
For 70 minutes on the kind of Joburg evening when the cold bites into your bones, Wolvaardt warmed the small crowd with, even by her towering standards, a performance for the ages to score 115 off 53. That's a strike rate of 216.98.
Asked at the press conference that followed whether she used the innings to celebrate the Bachelor of Science degree she earned cum laude from the University of South Africa - a respected distance learning institution - in September, Wolvaardt seemed taken aback.
"Getting my degree? I got my degree a while ago; last year. That's done."
Small wonder Wolvaardt was surprised at the question. Since the graduation ceremony, which was from May 26 to June 30, she has scored seven centuries and eight 50s in 34 white-ball international innings. She has reached 50 in almost half those trips to the crease and scored centuries in more than a fifth of them. That's a lot of success.
Which did she enjoy more: gaining her qualification or her innings on Wednesday?
"Both are pretty satisfying. The degree was a lot of hard work and a mission to do between cricket [commitments]. But I've worked hard [on the field] in, sort of, my job."
Wolvaardt reached her third T20I century off 47 - the fastest hundred in the format for South Africa. The 72/0 the home side made in the first six overs is their best powerplay score in the format. The opening stand of 183 Wolvaardt and Sune Luus shared off 92 is South Africa's highest stand for any wicket.
The 193/1 the home side scored to win with 21 balls to spare - and seal the five-match series with two games to spare - is their highest successful T20I chase.
Wolvaardt was there for 15.2 overs of all that. When she got out, to a slog sweep caught at deep midwicket, there were just 10 to get off those last 28 balls. Luus finished it with a mighty six over midwicket.
And another thing, the opposition weren't just anyone and they hadn't batted poorly. They were India, who scored 192/4 - their highest T20I total against South Africa.
Yet Wolvaardt made their attack, which bristled with Renuka Singh, Arundhati Reddy and Deepti Sharma - all among the top 10 ranked T20I bowlers in the world - look ordinary.
Wolvaardt lashed the first ball of the innings, from Renuka, through midwicket for four. Then she disappeared Kashvee Gautam for fours through extra cover, mid-on and cover in the second over. Renuka returned, and pitched the third ball too full outside off. Wolvaardt fired it flat through the icy air and over long-on for six.
A touch under three-quarters of her runs were hit in fours and sixes. That much we're used to. What stood out was that she scored almost as big a percentage of those runs on the leg side. Not just a pretty cover drive, then.
"I'm striking it nicely," Wolvaardt said. "Something I've been working on the last couple of years is my power-hitting, but [it's about] finding the balance between trying to whack it and still keep my strokes.
"I'm known for playing more traditional cricket, and sometimes I lose it a bit and try to hit the ball too hard and I lose my game. But I feel like I found the balance nicely tonight to keep my shapes and hit some big shots.
"Sometimes I feel I lose my cover drive and look to that power-hitting, muscling kind of thing. But the key is still my positioning. Yesterday in my training session I just hit cover drives on the ground. Because I feel if my positioning is good doing that, the rest of the game will take care of itself. Technically, I'm just trying to be in really strong positions; just trying to hit long through the ball."
Wolvaardt was dropped twice, when she was 31 and 85, by Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, both times at extra cover, both chances that should have been taken. But beyond those blemishes her batting was flawless. For her to consider it as "sort of my job" is a self-inflicted insult.
Indeed, Luus seemed frustrated by her relative failure to do a similar number on India's increasingly frazzled bowlers. She faced 13 deliveries before she put one beyond the boundary, and even that needed the luck of Jemimah Rodrigues palming the ball over the midwicket cushion for six as she attempted to take the catch. But Luus came into her own as the innings unfolded and was 64 not out off 42 when she ended the match in style.
Wolvaardt spoke in the wake of the axing of most of South Africa support staff in the aftermath of six losses in eight white-ball internationals in New Zealand in recent weeks. Among those who got the chop was Baakier Abrahams, who has been the team's batting coach since May 2024. CSA said 10 days ago that he had been sacked. Andrew Puttick has replaced Abrahams, who was popular with the players. Even so, Wednesday's superb display is surely a strong suggestion that the changes are bearing fruit.
"[Abrahams] was amazing for the group," Wolvaardt said. "When he got here, compared to where we are now, so many girls have worked on so many different options and have worked out so many different gameplans. We learnt a lot from him.
"But as Mandla [Mashimbyi] has said, he thought it was time for new voices. The new voices have only been here for like a week. So it's probably too soon to say the change has worked 100%.
"But Andrew's been great. He comes with a lot of knowledge and experience, and he's given us a lot of venue information. He's a really chilled and calm guy and he's been pumping my tyres in the nets, which has been nice."
Which brings us to what Luus said at Kingsmead on Sunday when she was asked what it had been like to have Keshav Maharaj in the dugout in a consulting role: "Sometimes a coach can be repetitive and think he knows everything."
Luus was trying to praise Maharaj's input. Instead she cast aspersions, perhaps inadvertently, perhaps on purpose, on the team's regular coaches.
Let's consider the available evidence. The South Africans have bossed India despite the absence from the series, through illness, of Marizanne Kapp. Ayabonga Khaka was rested on Wednesday, which helps explain why South Africa conceded as many runs as they did. They have gone for 180 or more in nine other T20Is, and won just one of them.
Like Wolvaardt said, it's too soon to say whether the credit for the turnaround since New Zealand comes down to the changes Mashimbyi has made. But we do know the new appointments haven't hurt. That Wolvaardt is doing "sort of my job" as well as ever is proof of that.
We also know that the start of the T20 World Cup in England is 51 days away. How South Africa fare there will be the true test.
