How do you solve a problem like Laura Wolvaardt? That's for South Africa's opponents to figure out. India spent 10 days trying to do so during the T20I series. All but once, they failed.

When Wolvaardt scored 50 or more, South Africa won. When she didn't, they lost. She made 51 and 54 in the first two games at Kingsmead, 115 in the first Wanderers match and 18 in the second, and 92 not out in the series finale in Benoni.

Only Wolvaardt reached 200 runs in the series. Her aggregate of 330 runs was almost twice as big as the Indians' top scorer, Harmanpreet Kaur, who banked 169. No woman has scored more runs in a rubber in the format, even though some series have been two games longer.

That said, Wolvaardt told a press conference after Monday's game at Willowmoore Park, there were helpful factors: "I want to say that I did get the best of conditions; won all the tosses, was able to chase under lights in the first four games and batted first today on a slowish wicket."

All of which is true. But so is a lot else, including how Wolvaardt finished her team's innings on Monday. She reached 50 off 30 balls and seemed to be steaming towards her second hundred in three innings. But then she lost momentum and struggled to stay on strike.

That would have prompted other players to lash out in frustration, quite likely aiding and abetting their dismissal. With nothing riding on the match - South Africa sealed the series in the first three games - Wolvaardt would have been forgiven for getting out. Instead she bided her time, collecting runs where she could.

When Deepti Sharma stood ready to bowl the 20th, Wolvaardt had faced only 23 deliveries since making it to 50. She swept a single to midwicket off the first ball, and was marooned at the non-striker's end for the next three while Sinalo Jafta scored three.

Back on strike with two balls left in the innings, Wolvaardt launched a six over wide mid-on and then hit one even harder, flatter six over long-on. It takes something special to bat like that against one of the game's finest bowlers when you've been tethered at the wrong end for too long.

Those two blows took South Africa to 155/6. Superb bowling by Eliz-Mari Marx, Nonkululeko Mlaba and Nadine de Klerk, who took 5/53 in 10 overs between them, curbed India's reply to 132/8. But, without Wolvaardt's big hits in the last over - neither of them her trademark cover drive - the match would have been much closer and might well have gone the other way.

Before taking on India, the South Africans were in New Zealand, where they lost six of their eight white-ball games. Wolvaardt was limited to 97 runs in her five T20I innings. She was South Africa's leading run-scorer in the three ODIs with 154, but they struggled to win even when she came good - she scored 69 in both of the last two ODIs, and South Africa lost both. What made the difference against the Indians, who are ranked above the Kiwis?

"I can't really tell you what's changed that much," Wolvaardt said. "The funny thing about cricket is that in New Zealand I scored nine off 14 in one game [the fifth T20I] and today I'm batting a lot better, and I don't really know why."

But she did highlight improvements in her team's powerplay batting and death bowling from the T20I series against New Zealand to the rubber against India.