Laura Wolvaardt backs young stars Reyneke and Dercksen's 'explosive power' to shine against India

Proteas Women’s captain Laura Wolvaardt has backed young allrounders Kayla Reyneke and Annerie Dercksen to leave their mark on the T20I series against India, kicking off at Kingsmead in Durban on Friday (6pm start).

The home team may be without the experienced Dane van Niekerk and Marizanne Kaap due to injury and illness respectively, but Reyneke (20) and Dercksen (24) are the torchbearers of a new generation of Proteas Women’s cricketers set to lead the team into the next decade.

Dercksen has been around the squad for the past couple of seasons, playing in both the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup final in Dubai and last year’s ODI World Cup final in Navi Mumbai.

The hard-hitting batter and seam bowler has also been earmarked as one for the future on a global scale after being named ICC Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year last year.

Reyneke, meanwhile, burst on the scene in spectacular fashion this season after the former SA U19 captain struck match-winning sixes off the final delivery on both her T20I and ODI debuts - the first woman cricketer to achieve that feat in international cricket.

“Kayla's very exciting. I think obviously her being an all-rounder, she bowls pretty good off-spin, which I think is something this group has been looking for for a while as a true off-spinner,” Wolvaardt said.

“Obviously we have Sune (Luus) as well, but then Kayla just adds a bit of a different dynamic, bowls a little bit differently to what she does. 

“So I think it just helps with the balance and then to have her coming in and to be able to smash sixes like that at will is something that you don't find every day and it's pretty rare, especially in a youngster like that.”

Wolvaardt even acknowledged that she’s been trying to take a leaf out of the youngster’s power-hitting book.

“That raw power is pretty hard to teach. I've been trying to work on it for a long time, but yeah, she seems to just have it,” the skipper said.

“So very exciting, very explosive and destructive player, and hopefully she's able to do that for many more games for us.”

Wolvaardt was equally full of high praise for Dercksen, who topped the Proteas’ run-scoring charts during the recent T20I series against New Zealand with 114 runs at a strike-rate of 129.54. She was also only second behind Wolvaardt in the ODI series with 119 runs at an average of 59.40.

“Yeah, Derksen's been amazing. I think she's come into some really good form lately, which has been awesome to see,” Wolvaardt said.

“She really looks to be in control of her batting, which is very exciting and she's had some opportunities at the top of the order and I felt like she really took them in New Zealand, was probably our best batter in the T20 series and continued that form in the ODIs as well. 

“She’s been great around that 4-5 position in T20s. I think she has that power later on as well, which is cool if she's able to construct in innings and then really take the game on at the end.

“So very exciting player, very exciting that she's an all-rounder as well, and I'm sure she'll get some more opportunity this series and hopefully she's able to continue in her good form.”