Dané van Niekerk ( , ; born 14 May 1993) is a South African

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er born in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

and educated at Hoërskool Centurion.

leg spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

bowler, she has appearances in

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

One-Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

(ODI) and

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) representing South Africa and is the women's team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in all three forms (Test, ODI and T20I) since June 2016. She was the first bowler for South Africa to take 100 wickets in WODIs.

Domestic and T20 career

She played domestically for Highveld Women and Northerns Women before becoming one of the first two South African females (along with

Marizanne Kapp Marizanne Kapp ( , ; born 4 January 1990) is a South African international cricketer who plays for South Africa national women's cricket team. She was the first cricketer for South Africa to take a hat-trick in a Women's Twenty20 International ...

) to be included in the

Eastern Province cricket team Eastern Province cricket team was the former team that represented the Eastern Province in domestic first-class cricket in South Africa, alongside one-day matches. Eastern Province played first-class cricket from 1893–94 to 2004–05, when the ...

academy (men's team). In 2015, she took part of the inaugural season of the Australian

Women's Big Bash League The Women's Big Bash League (known as the WBBL and, for sponsorship reasons, the Weber WBBL) is the Australian women's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007–08 ...

playing for the

Melbourne Renegades The Melbourne Renegades are an Australian professional men's Twenty20 franchise cricket club based in Melbourne, the capital city of the Australian state of Victoria. They compete in the Australian Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash ...

. In November 2018, she was named in the

Sydney Sixers The Sydney Sixers are an Australian professional franchise men's cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League (BBL). Along with the Sydney Thunder, the Sixers are the successors of the New ...

' squad for the

2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season The 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season or WBBL, 04 was the fourth season of the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), the semi-professional women's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament ran from 1 December 2018 to 26 ...

. In September 2019, she was named in the Devnarain XI squad for the inaugural edition of the Women's T20 Super League in South Africa. In 2021, she was drafted by

Oval Invincibles Oval Invincibles is a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in South London. The team represents the historic counties of Surrey and Kent in the newly founded The Hundred competition, which took place for the first time during the 2021 Engl ...

for the inaugural season of The Hundred. She was the highest run-scorer in the women's Hundred tournament with 259 runs. In April 2022, she was bought by the

for the 2022 season of The Hundred.

International career

She was selected as part of the

South Africa national women's cricket team The South Africa women's national cricket team, nicknamed the Proteas, represents South Africa in international women's cricket. One of eight teams competing in the ICC Women's Championship (the highest level of the sport), the team is organis ...

for the

2009 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup was the ninth edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, held in Australia from 7 to 22 March 2009. England won the tournament, beating New Zealand in the final to claim their third World Cup title. England batte ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, becoming a regular presence in the squad. She played in the

2013 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2013 Women's Cricket World Cup was the tenth Women's Cricket World Cup, hosted by India for the third time, and held from 31 January to 17 February 2013. India previously hosted the World Cup in 1978 and 1997. Australia won the tournament for ...

, as well as representing South Africa at the Women's World Twenty20 in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

. Bowling leg-spin, she made her debut at 16 years of age in March 2009, during the World Cup match against the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. In her second match, she took 3/11 as South Africa beat

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

to claim 7th place in the tournament. Through the years she has developed into an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

and became a T20I

opening batter In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

. In January 2013, she became the first South African woman to take an international

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

, finishing with 5/28 in an ODI match against the

. A month later she scored her first ODI half century with a 55

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

during a World Cup match against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. She shared a partnership of 128 runs with Marizanne Kapp, the highest South African partnership for the 6th wicket. In January 2014 against Pakistan, van Niekerk took her second ODI five-wicket haul with 5/17. She was the first South African woman player to achieve two five-wicket hauls in ODIs. Later that year, facing Pakistan at the Women's World T20I, she scored 90 not out in a 163 run unbroken partnership with

Lizelle Lee Lizelle Lee (born 2 April 1992) is a South African cricketer who played for the South Africa women's national cricket team from 2013 to 2022. She has played for Western Storm and Surrey Stars in the Women's Cricket Super League, as well as Melbou ...

, which is the second highest individual score in T20I by a South African woman and the second highest partnership in all women's T20I history. On 21 June 2016, she was appointed as South Africa women's captain for all forms (Test, ODI and T20I) following

Mignon du Preez Mignon du Preez (born 13 June 1989) is a South African cricketer, who was the women's team captain in all three forms of cricket, Test matches, ODIs and T20Is, from 2007 to 2018. A right-handed batter and occasional wicket-keeper, du Preez ...

's decision to step down as captain. In February 2017, during the

2017 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2017 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier was an international women's cricket tournament that was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 7 to 21 February 2017. It was the final stage of the qualification process for the 2017 World Cup in Engl ...

, she became the seventh player to reach 1,000 runs and take 100 wickets in WODIs. She also became the first player for South Africa to take 100 wickets in WODIs. She went on to become the first ever bowler (male or female) to take four wickets in international cricket history without conceding a single run and also set the record for recording the best bowling figures for South Africa in Women's World Cup history. She also became the leading wicket taker during the 2017 ICC Women's World Cup tournament with 15 scalps. In December 2017, she was named as one of the players in the ICC Women's ODI Team of the Year. In March 2018, she was one of fourteen players to be awarded a national contract by

Cricket South Africa Cricket South Africa (CSA) is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South Afr ...

ahead of the 2018–19 season. In October 2018, she was named as the captain of South Africa's squad for the

2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 The 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 was the sixth edition of the ICC Women's World Twenty20, hosted in the West Indies from 9 to 24 November 2018. It the second World Twenty20 hosted by the West Indies (after the 2010 edition), and the West Ind ...

tournament in the West Indies. Ahead of the tournament, she was named as the star of the team and one of the players to watch. She was the joint-leading wicket-taker for South Africa in the tournament, with six dismissals in four matches. In February 2019, during the first WODI against Sri Lanka Women, she scored her

first century The 1st century was the century spanning AD 1 ( I) through AD 100 ( C) according to the Julian calendar. It is often written as the or to distinguish it from the 1st century BC (or BCE) which preceded it. The 1st century is considered part of t ...

in a WODI match In the process, she also became the fourth cricketer for South Africa Women to score 2,000 runs in WODIs, and became the fourth woman to achieve the double of reaching 2,000 runs and taking 100 wickets in WODIs. In August 2019, she was named the Women's Cricketer of the Year at

's annual award ceremony. In January 2020, she was named as the captain of South Africa's squad for the

2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup The 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Women's T20 World Cup tournament. It was held in Australia between 21 February and 8 March 2020. The final took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on International Women's Day. Hosts Aus ...

in Australia. On 23 July 2020, van Niekerk was named in South Africa's 24-woman squad to begin training in

, ahead of their tour to England.

Personal life

In July 2018, she married her teammate

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:van Niekerk, Dane 1993 births Living people Eastern Province women cricketers Loughborough Lightning cricketers Melbourne Renegades (WBBL) cricketers Northerns women cricketers South Africa women One Day International cricketers South Africa women Test cricketers South Africa women Twenty20 International cricketers South Africa women's national cricket team captains South African women cricketers Sportspeople from Pretoria Sydney Sixers (WBBL) cricketers Women's One Day International cricket hat-trick takers Surrey Stars cricketers South African LGBT sportspeople LGBT cricketers Lesbian sportswomen Oval Invincibles cricketers Adelaide Strikers (WBBL) cricketers 21st-century LGBT people Wisden Cricketers of the Year