Will South Africa's women's wobble continue?

"You strike a woman, you strike a rock" has been heard in South Africa since August 1956, when it was the rallying cry for a march in Pretoria of more than 20,000 women of all races to protest the extension of apartheid legislation to black women. But what happens when women strike rock?

South Africa have done that, hard, in recent weeks. They played eight white-ball internationals in New Zealand from March 15 to Saturday, and lost six of them.

Four of the five top scores in the ODI series were made by New Zealanders, along with all five in the T20Is. Ayabonga Khaka was the leading wicket-taker in the ODIs with nine, but she claimed six of them in one match and the rest of the top five were all Kiwis. Of the eight bowlers the visitors used in the T20Is, only Ayanda Hlubi, who played in two games, had an economy rate under 8.00. Six of the seven bowlers New Zealand deployed limited the damage to less than eight an over.

"You realise where you've gone wrong, and it's not things you haven't done before," Mandla Mashimbyi told a press conference. "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."

Things are unlikely to get easier. The start of a home series of five T20Is against India that Mashimbyi alluded to is 10 days away, and the World Cup in that format begins 67 days from Tuesday in England. Hear that? It's the sound of the clock ticking...

And it is louder than it might have been for other teams. The South Africans reached all three of the most recent women's World Cup finals - the 2023 and '24 T20 versions and last year's ODI tournament. They lost all of them, but in a country where global cricket successes are few and far between - South Africa have won only three ICC titles from readmission in 1991 - the women's team have become a beacon of hope and excellence. Now that beacon is teetering.

The fact that Marizanne Kapp hasn't played since taking ill during the third T20I against Pakistan in Benoni in February has been cited as a source of South Africa's problems. But she is 36 and will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.

Similarly, the international retirement of Shabnim Ismail in May 2023 has been held up as a reason for South Africa's subsequent struggles. But while she was a giant in their dressingroom and in a Proteas shirt, the fact is they made it all the way to two World Cup finals without her.

The closest the South Africans have to a bright spot on the horizon is 20-year-old Kayla Reyneke, who took guard in the first ODI against New Zealand in Christchurch 10 days ago with South Africa six down and needing 79 off 75. Reyneke's unbeaten 42 off 32 culminated in a last-ball six off Suzie Bates that she hammered over long-on to seal the two-wicket win. Khaka took a career-best 6/56 in the same match.

But highlights like that were rare in New Zealand. So the series against India will be closely watched as South Africa's last chance to sort themselves out before they go to England. The rubber promises to be a rigorous test - the Indians have won eight of their last 10 T20Is, which have included series victories over fellow powerhouses England and Australia.

India denied South Africa in the ODI World Cup final in Navi Mumbai in November, and they were unexpectedly undone by New Zealand in the T20I decider in Dubai in October 2024. Now the Indians loom again - as they will at Old Trafford in a World Cup group game on June 21.

South Africa thus have opportunities to fix what went wrong against Harmanpreet Kaur's side just more than four months ago. Was Mashimbyi looking forward to the chance to do the same against the New Zealanders on the global stage?

"We'll take whatever we get at the World Cup. We're not in the same group, so if we're going to meet it will be at the business end of the competition. But that's not our worry at the moment. Our worry is where we need to tweak, where are the gaps. We need to make sure we get better."

Because, unlike rocks, women can and do strike back.