'Sacrifices reason for Dercksen's rise'

BARELY a year into her ODI career, South Africa’s newest star — all-rounder Annerie Dercksen — has taken the cricketing world by storm.

- ONGAMA GCWABE

Having impressed with raw pace with the ball and unmatched power with the bat, the 24-year-old has developed at an exponential rate over the past 10 months, as she is now one of the key players in the Proteas women’s squad.

Her returns in the recent tour of Sri Lanka, in a Tri-series against the hosts and India Women last month, Dercksen finished as the leading run-scorer with 276 runs in four innings, including a maiden century and two half-centuries, as she displayed maturity despite being relatively new to the format. Batting coach Baakier Abrahams told Independent Media on Tuesday in an exclusive interview that Dercksen’s rapid growth and maturity boil down to the sacrifices she continues to make in search of improvement. Dercksen has travelled to the Eastern Cape to fine-tune her batting ahead of the West Indies tour, a migration that the right-handed batter had done last year before the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.