Kayla Reyneke: South Africa's time for World Cup trophy will come

The junior women's side made history by reaching their first-ever World Cup final as they went on an impressive unbeaten run through the group and Super 6 phases, before sweeping aside Australia in the semi-final.

However, Sunday's final against defending champions India was a stretch too far as they suffered a nine-wicket defeat, with Reyneke acknowledging that the benchmark has been raised, but their time to lift and celebrate a major trophy will come in future.

"Yeah, look, I take nothing away from this team and we've had a pretty good run but I'm so thankful for everything. Before the game, we had a chat and I said if it's not God's timing today, it will be in the future for us,” Reyneke said.

“It just wasn't our day today, we didn't show up but I just wanna thank my team and my management, I couldn't have asked for a better team and staff. I'm so grateful for them."

READ: No match, but a training camp for Banyana’s WAFCON preparations

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the South Africans crumbled under pressure from the Indian spin attack, as they mustered a meagre total of just 82 all-out, and the skipper admits they just didn't show up with the bat on the day.

"Yeah, look, we didn't show up today with the bat that's just the truth and we'll regroup and see what and where we could have done better but yeah, definitely not our day but we'll take it," she added.

After opening batter and SA's top run scorer Jemma Botha was dismissed at the end of the fourth over, the rest of the batting order struggled to muster up any sort of partnership to warrant a fight back.

However, Reyneke, who also starred with the bat at number four in the semi-final, was quick to shoot down the notion that they lacked batting depth.

"I wouldn't say we just rely on our top four if it's a batter's day to come off, they'll come off but as I've mentioned before in the previous interview, I'll back my batting unit, even my bowling unit. I wouldn't just say we rely on the top four but we are a strong unit, we are a well-balanced unit and we don't only rely on specifics."