New Delhi [India], January 26 (ANI): Promising South African star Annerie Dercksen was named the ICC Rising Girls’s Cricketer of the Yr for 2024 on Sunday, beating a troublesome line-up of opponents to win the distinguished honour, which included Scotland’s Saskia Horley, India’s Shreyanka Patil and Eire’s Freya Sargent.
Dercksen wore the inexperienced and golds for the first-ever time in January 2023 in the course of the T20I triangular sequence that includes India and West Indies and has by no means seemed again.
Whereas the 23-year-old featured in 5 T20Is in her preliminary 12 months, the all-rounder established herself in worldwide cricket in 2024, in a 12 months wherein she additionally made her Check and ODI debuts.
If 2023 was the 12 months of testing the waters, the all-rounder opened up in full movement in 2024, making a huge impact within the worldwide enviornment.
Dercksen’s 2024 in assessment: 161 runs and 5 wickets in 17 T20Is, 60 runs in 2 Checks, 70 runs and 6 wickets in 4 ODIsDercksen demonstrated composure with the willow, showcasing a capability to each reconstruct an innings and information a chase ought to the scenario demand. Amongst her contributions was a stabilising 27 in South Africa’s solely victory of the limited-overs leg of the sequence in opposition to England late in 2024, as per ICC.
With the ball, the medium pacer picked up 11 scalps, underlining her potential as a real all-rounder.
Dercksen was a part of South Africa’s stellar marketing campaign within the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup 2024, throughout which the Proteas managed to succeed in the ultimate earlier than falling quick in opposition to New Zealand.
Dercksen maintained a wholesome common of 32.2 in T20Is and salvaged South Africa from a number of tough conditions, whereas additionally displaying the flexibility to choose tempo regardless of floating in lower-order positions initially of the 12 months earlier than being drafted into the middle-order in the direction of the top.
She additionally picked up 5 wickets within the format, together with a career-best 2/5 in opposition to Sri Lanka throughout South Africa’s complete win at house in March.
Dercksen’s bowling shone additional within the longer white-ball format, the place she delivered a career-best 3/16 throughout South Africa’s win in opposition to England within the first ODI.An identical story continued in Checks, throughout robust contests in opposition to India and England. Dercksen’s greatest was 41 in Bloemfontein, throughout which she helped rebuild the innings with a 92-run stand for the second wicket.Within the leadup to the Girls’s T20 World Cup 2024, Dercksen had just one batting alternative within the T20I sequence in opposition to Pakistan, however the teenager made probably the most of it.
Within the sequence decider, South Africa confronted a difficult chase of 154. After shedding Tazmin Brits early and seeing Anneke Bosch retire harm at a essential second, Dercksen was thrust into the highlight. She rose to the event brilliantly, smashing an unbeaten 44 off simply 23 balls, that includes six fours and two towering sixes, which got here in opposition to the skilled Nida Dar and Sadia Iqbal.
Her explosive knock guided South Africa to a series-clinching victory, incomes her the Participant of the Match award. (ANI)
