Eight years in waiting, Nadine de Klerk conquers her dream
What it also meant is that she had the time to learn and grow on the job. “If you take even Smriti (Mandhana), for example, is only 29 or whatever. I think it helps when you start off that young because it allows you a bit more time. If you start out as a 25-year-old and it takes you three or four years to settle at the international stage, you’re almost 30. Because I started at 17, it almost allowed me that bit of extra time. I was in the system since I was 17, but I only really started playing at 22. I almost had five years where I was touring with, carrying drinks, learning, figuring out how I want to play, what is my game looking like at the moment, and then trying to build on that.”
Even though she did learn the ropes on the sidelines, it was not until she got on the park, soaking the pressure of it all that De Klerk understood the ins and outs of her game. Till 2022, she had not played more than nine ODIs. It became nine in 2023, 11 in 2024 and 15 in 2025 (till the league stage of the WC). The more she played, the better she became. De Klerk has 553 runs since 2024 (only behind Laura Wolvaardt, Tazmin Brits and Marizanne Kapp for SA) and also has taken 26 wickets (only second to Nonkululeko Mlaba’s 34).
“I think that was probably the biggest thing. I think you can only grow that much when you’re sitting on the side at the end of the day. We all know that doing is actually the best way to learn and to figure stuff out,” she said, before adding, “I think I got an understanding. You fail a couple of times, you figure out, what did I do wrong? Where can I get better? There was a time where I actually got a lot of back-to-back opportunities, and I think that was probably the biggest turning point,” she said, before adding, “When do I go aggressive? When do I take my time? How do I kind of go about it and build in innings? But I think, especially over the last year and a bit, I think I’ve started to understand my role coming in at number seven or eight a bit better, and I really tried to make that spot my own. I really worked hard on setting up games, building in innings, not necessarily just coming in and smashing it. I allow myself a bit more time, get myself in and then take the game on.”
