The first time South Africa reached a World Cup final, at the home T20 World Cup in 2023, they were just happy to be there. The second time, a year later, they were spent from playing the game of their lives in the semi-final and beating perennial champions Australia. But the third - this time and also their first in the ODI World Cup - seemed set to be the charm, until South Africa fell short again.
It's worth remembering that's all it was: they fell short. They neither disgraced themselves, nor choked. They lost a game of cricket against a team who were better, indeed who saw this as their date with destiny and sometimes, in sport, these things happen.
Still, in the immediate aftermath, that did not soften the blow. Marizanne Kapp, probably playing in her last ODI World Cup, sat in the dugout, her eyes brimming with tears, and ignored the hand of comfort on her shoulder. Laura Wolvaardt and Nadine de Klerk sat together, the shock still writ across their faces, even as they feigned a few smiles. Tazmin Brits sat alone, staring at nothing in particular, what-ifs running through her mind.
Spare a thought specifically for Wolvaardt, who is now the leading run-scorer in a single edition of any ODI World Cup and the second-highest World Cup run-scorer overall.
With centuries in the semi-final and the final, eight catches in the tournament and increasingly more astute captaincy, she may feel she deserved more than a runners up medal, but sport can be cruel and Wolvaardt has been dealt a particularly tough hand.
Ask her and she'll probably say she'd trade in all those accolades for the trophy but she took defeat on the chin. "We were outplayed tonight," Wolvaardt said at the post-match presentation before telling the press conference that she could already see the silver lining. "We'll still look back at this tournament as having a lot of positives.
"We've played some really good cricket throughout this tournament. At one stage we won five games in a row, which is pretty big for our group. We're just searching for that consistency, which is something that we don't necessarily have in bilaterals. So, I'm really proud that we're able to perform in big tournaments."
South Africa came into this World Cup having won six out of 13 ODIs in the year preceding the tournament, which included a series loss to England and failing to make the final of a triangular series which included India and Sri Lanka.
That they beat both India and Sri Lanka in the group stage and rallied from 69 all out against England before the knockouts to beat them by 125 runs in the semi-final speaks both to how bilateral form can rarely be a gauge for major tournament success and that South Africa can pick themselves up quickly when things go wrong.
Those are both signs of a maturing team but still, just 12 years since professionalisation, they remain a work in progress.
"We're learning on the job and we showed that we were able to grow and actually get to the final like we did now," Mandla Mashimbyi, South Africa's coach, who has only been in charge for 10 months said. "To see how the team has progressed from the time that I took over, is a humbling experience for me. But at the same time, I'm excited because when nobody gave us a chance, we gave ourselves a chance."
Wolvaardt pointed to "different people" who "put up their hands at different stages" including how South Africa played against spin (the England and Australia blow outs which included an Alana King seven-for excluded) and how their spinners bowled.
"That's always been a big talking point with our group, is how we play spin so to make it to the final of the World Cup in subcontinent conditions (was rewarding)," she said. "Our seamers bowled pretty well in subcontinent conditions as well. They often bowled better than our spinners did, economy-wise. Kappie was great for us. And Nadine was excellent. It was really nice to see."
De Klerk's finishing with the bat against India and Bangladesh and Kapp's five-for in the semi-final will be talked about for years to come, but so will Nonkululekho Mlaba's 13 wickets, which puts her as the joint fifth-highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
For all the celebration of individual contributions, there also needs to be an acknowledgement of which players did not perform, coupled with the empathy that comes with such an assessment.
Everyone goes into a tournament wanting to give their absolute best but for some, that just doesn't happen. Anneke Bosch scored just 35 runs in six innings at the tournament, including three ducks, and dropped Shafali Verma on 56 in the final, a chance that cost South Africa 31 runs. There were arguments to be made for leaving her out of the final XI in place of an extra seamer like Masabata Klaas but South Africa always felt they needed a batting cushion for a big chase.
That may also be because they stuck rigidly to the pre-tournament plan of using Sinalo Jafta at No.6 and though she looks better than she has than at any other stage of her career, she still uses up too many dot balls. Jafta twice made her career-best at this World Cup, but her tournament strike rate was under 70 and at this level, South Africa needed more.
Naturally, South Africa will wonder about the plans they didn't make and chances they didn't take but some perspective will remind them that they still defied expectations getting to the final. They also continued a line of excellence that stretches back to 2023 when this same team broke new ground by becoming the first senior side to reach a World Cup final. But they can't ride on that forever even though they are doing what they can to see the bigger picture.
"Cricket in South Africa is thriving. Sometimes things have to go wrong to go right and I think that was the case," Mashimbyi, who worked extensively in men's domestic cricket before moving to the women's team, said. "In terms of the talent that's coming through in South African cricket in both men and women, it's actually quite scary. The future of South African cricket looks bright."
But now that they can reach finals (six across all formats, genders and age-groups since that T20 final in 2023) questions will be asked about when South Africa will take the next step and win trophies. For now, the answer is: not this time.