The tenth edition of the IPL concluded on Sunday, with the Mumbai Indians securing a dramatic one-run victory over Rising Pune Supergiant. South Africans were reduced to spectators for the Final but, in truth, that was largely the case throughout most of the tournament - with a few exceptions.
Ten South Africans were contracted to play this season, but that was reduced before the tournament even started. JP Duminy pulled out citing 'personal reasons', while a conservative approach to Quinton de Kock's finger injury (suffered on the New Zealand tour in March) saw Cricket South Africa rule him out of the Indian showpiece too - affecting the chances of Rahul Dravid's Delhi Daredevils immeasurably.
The remaining eight players - including Tabraiz Shamsi who sat idle at the Royal Challengers Bangalore - were spread across four of the eight franchises, but highlights were few and far between.
AB DE VILLIERS
(Royal Challengers Bangalore)
The fact that the Royal Challengers Bangalore finished in last place, with their three wins coming against the two teams directly above them, highlights the fall from grace for the 2016 finalists.
Daniel Vettori's squad had all of AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle as gun batsmen, but only captain Kohli can (kind of) hold his head up high. De Villiers much less so.
The fans' favourite international cricketer mustered only 216 runs from his nine matches (27.00 average), well below the expectations of his Indian faithful. However, his South African faithful will forgive him if he returns to his awe-inspiring best during the limited overs phase of the England Tour...
CHRIS MORRIS
(Delhi Daredevils)
But for Chris Morris, the Daredevils may very well have finished even lower than the sixth place in which they did. The 30-year-old all-rounder finished as the team's third-best batsman and bowler according to averages.
His 30.80 average (154 runs) with the bat was bettered by only Amit Mishra and Shreyas Iyer, while only Shabaz Nadeem and Jayant Yadav had bettered bowling averages than his 20.00 (12 wickets).
The onus is now of Morris to break out from that 'too good for domestic cricket but not good enough to star in international cricket' mould. Will that happen during the Champions Trophy?
KAGISO RABADA
(Delhi Daredevils)
Soon to turn 22, Kagiso Rabada is going into the 2016-17 season as South Africa's premier fast bowler - owing to Dale Steyn's injury-enforced absence from the England Tour.
As such, he can look back on his debut IPL campaign for the Daredevils as a solid precursor. His six matches saw him claim six wickets with best figures of 2/20. While his runs per over of 8.81 was relatively high, the lessons Rabada learnt would arguably outweigh what his numbers suggest.
HASHIM AMLA
(Kings XI Punjab)
There remain no more doubts about Hashim Amla's abilities as a limited overs batsman, with the Kings XI opener arguably edging Imran Tahir as South Africa's MVP in IPL 2017.
Amla scored 420 runs in his 10 matches for the Mohali-based franchise, more often than not giving the team a solid base from which to build their innings on. The 34-year-old was also the only batsman in 2017 to score two hundreds, and came within two balls of both of those being 'carried bat' innings.
He will be key to South Africa winning a second Champions Trophy title in England.
DAVID MILLER
(Kings XI Punjab)
If IPL 2017 proved anything about David Miller, it is that he remains an enigma. The 27-year-old signed a lucrative extension to his Kings XI contract ahead of this season, but did nothing but pay the franchise back.
Virender Sehwag's charges just missed the playoffs and there's no doubt if Miller mustered more than 83 runs in his five matches that would have been a more positive playoff scenario.
FAF DU PLESSIS
(Rising Pune Supergiant)
With an overseas player in Steve Smith as captain, another - Ben Stokes - as their big-money all-round star, as well as Adam Zampa and Imran Tahir taking spinning roles, Faf du Plessis found himself surplus to requirements in 2017.
South Africa's Test and T20I captain featured only twice this season (scoring eight runs), before returning home early in preparation for the Proteas' England Tour, which includes the Champions Trophy. Success there may well placate the ordinariness of his IPL season.
IMRAN TAHIR
(Rising Pune Supergiant)
Imran Tahir, released by Delhi Daredevils after the 2016 season, found no buyers at this year's auction in February... but then Mitchell Marsh injured his shoulder while on duty for Australia and the Pakistan-born leg-spinner received an early 38th birthday present as his replacement at Supergiant.
The Pune franchise already had Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa in their squad, but New Zealand coach Stephen Fleming decided on the experience of Tahir - and was rewarded handsomely. 'Immy' played 12 matches for the Supergiant, taking 18 wickets to finish fifth on the wicket-takers table and prove the best 'SOS buy' of the season.
If Tahir didn't have to return to South Africa before playoff week, it may well have been the team in purple, rather than blue, walking off of the trophy.