A tribute to the true spark of the Proteas fire: Mignon du Preez!

March 27, 2022, was no ordinary date in the timeline of Proteas Women's game. One reckons it will remain, for a long time, a moment of considerable achievement for their cricket. 

The last time that the Proteas women experienced heartbreak whilst competing in an ICC ODI World Cup semi-final was back in 2000; they'd lose to Australia by nine wickets.

A little over two decades from December 18, 2000, they'd again enter the semi-finals of the mother of all sporting battles but with their fate hanging in a bit of a dilemma. 

And much of the relief-giving effort, one that culminated into a victory and that too, against India, was down to one person, in particular. 

Her name- Mignon du Preez. Her achievement: scoring a matchwinning and game-turning fifty that came just at a time where there were nerves and perhaps even a growing feeling that the Proteas may not be able to cross the line.

Chasing 276, which is what India had set, isn't ever easy in any context of cricket. Not in T20I's most definitely, not always easy in the fourth inning of a Test, and definitely not- in a World cup contest when you are attempting to break into the semi-finals.

But when Mignon du Preez walked out to bat, which was around the start of the twenty-eighth over, South Africa were in a precarious situation needing another 130 from 132 deliveries.

Though the trouble was that notable bats, including the elegant stroke maker Goodall and arguably the greatest find of Proteas cricket in a long, long time, Wolvaardt, were back in the hut.

Lizelle Lee not scoring anything big or exciting in the contest didn't help the cause either.

A lot, therefore, depended on the experienced former captain of one of the most enterprising sides in all of the women's cricket. 

With Mithali Raj unfurling Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Deepti Sharma from an end and changing the attack with options aplenty, re-introducing medium pacers Meghna Singh and Pooja Vastrakar, there was a constant barrage of pressure.

But du Preez didn't budge; not once did she buckle down. A thirty-seven-run fourth-wicket stand with her captain Sune Luus soon followed, but Harmanpreet Kaur and her golden arm with the spin had other ideas.

The only safest bet now remaining with the Proteas needing 93 off 83 was Marizane Kapp. And while her stroke-filled 32 played the aggressor, an untimely run-out was the last thing that the chasers and 'Kappie' needed.

Tryon soon hit a few vigorous blows and departed. Du Preez, meanwhile, was solid, grounded, focused and followed every dot ball with a run-scoring opportunity.

She'd released, just minutes before, the pressure that was rising with every single delivery as her team needed.

The two glowing boundaries and that, too, against Vastrakar helped ease some nerves. Before the start of the 46th over, Proteas still needed 45 from 30.

With the run rate creeping with every single delivery, a dashing hit down the ground, and another executed with surgical precision towards deep square leg fence saw momentum shift back towards the Momentum Proteas side.

The carrier of that change was Mignon du Preez. The giver of hope to a team that still needed to believe it could do it was Mignon du Preez.

Soon after that came the moment where heart rates may have been at their peak and the pressure beyond a point of control.

With seven needed off six and only bowlers to follow, Trisha Chetty, another legend of South African cricket, walked back on the second delivery of the over, having been run out. 

But just imagine how woeful and relieving might have been the moment in the exact same instant where on the one hand, Du Preez stepping down the ground towards long on led to a run out of her very dear friend, and given the single, also brought up her fifty?

5 were still needed off 4. And two deliveries later, 2 were needed off as many. 

Though, this wasn't a time to engage in big-hitting acts. Two years back in the day, Mignon du Preez had smoked none other than Katherine Brunt over the on-side boundary for a towering six in a nail-biting Women's T20 World Cup match.

That effort, a matchwinning one, with Dane van Niekerk scoring heaps of vital runs in the game, corrected a major wrong: up to that T20 contest, South Africa had never previously defeated England in a T20 Women's World Cup. 

But this situation was different. A mishit could've crushed the hopes of a sport-loving country that obsesses with craft and where, in stark contrast to an idol-worshipping India, resilience is a bigger hero than any particular sporting identity.

Finally, on the last ball of the 50th over, one delivered by Deepti Sharma in the middle was worked for a single towards the deep mid-wicket.

Resultantly, one nation was crushed and seeped into despair; the other, however, arose when it seemed all was over.

And the one who neutralised the threat for her team didn't jump and dance along, capturing in a triumphant moment the poise her South Africa demonstrated.

Mignon pumped her fist in the air in joy but didn't rub her win on her opponent's face, for that is not what the greats do.

The greats derive contentment in upholding the dignity of the sport. They replace shenanigans with simplicity.

That's precisely what Mignon du Preez, who hit a century on Test debut, a double century before she was a teen, and someone who captained Proteas across formats, has done in the great game of ours for fifteen years.

In a sport where you tend to become a celeb much faster nowadays than one would imagine, where you tend to dwell in celeb-hood, it's a refreshing sight to see a record-breaking cricketer content at just being a person, first and always.

Mignon, who turns 33 today, is a sister-like figure to opponents like Jemimah Rodriguez. She's one who hands out chocolates to all in her camp and, more than that, is a giver of perhaps the most vivacious and spiritual smile in cricket, where the human touch so often goes missing and where rivalries are bitter.

And that one of South Africa's finest daughters has a cricket stadium's gates named after her, the Mignon du Preez gate at SuperSport park is further affirmation of the right-hander's simplicity.

In a sport that has given us all great names and thus, achievers, think Sana Mir, Mithali Raj, Stafanie Taylor, Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine, Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry, adding Mignon's name to the list is perhaps furthering the great canvass of competence that is the women's game. 

The highest ODI run-maker for the women's side (3,760 runs), the one with most ODI appearances for South Africa until recently (154 games), Mignon's been a batting mainstay of her side for over a decade. 

Someone who's gone on to collect 5,500 runs in white-ball cricket, placing respect for the opponent and what her team needs over and above her own desires, Du Preez has been the carrier of Protean pride for a period so long that it draws regard from even her adversaries.

You don't sledge Mignon du Preez, for at the most, you can only be left irate by the sight of her innate ability to focus for long periods of the game.

A game's not yet over even as Lee, Wolvaardt and Kapp are back in the dugout for as long as du Preez remains as the crease.

We've seen the Windies women suffer from this plight in the more recent white-ball contests.

We saw India, who nearly whitewashed South Africa in the 3 ODIs (2018) suffer a similar fate when they ran into Du Preez's stellar 90-off-111 at Potchefstroom (final ODI), which is where the simpleton from Pretoria defended South Africa's pride with usual gusto and focus.

Not that she's been a swashbuckler in T20Is, an area of her game where she desired to introduce marked improvement, Mignon, who's called time on her ODI and Test career, would still like to go northward in the strike rate department.

With great game awareness and the knowledge that much of contemporary cricket is confined to the swashbuckling template of T20 cricket, Mignon has gone on to ply her trade with utmost success in The Hundred and, most noticeably, the Women's Big Bash League. 

In season six of Australia's famous WBBL, du Preez turned out to be a hurricane with the bat scoring 380 from 13 games for Hobart Hurricanes, as she struck 4 fifties and rounded up the season with a strike rate nearing 123.

Though it must it be said, it's not just the runs- and this is someone who, as a 12-year-old, carved a double ton in a 40-over contest in South Africa- that beckons your attention.

Mignon's longevity in the game, marked by her appearance in four separate ODI World cup editions, is what has gone on to contribute to her legend. Add to that standing up for South Africa in tricky situations and being utterly grateful for adding value and knowledge to a bright crop of rising talents when she could so simply have focused only on growing her credentials.

Not that the beaming smile that can brighten anyone's day not seen duller days; the 2017 ODI world cup loss to England was one of the bitterest moments in an otherwise landmark career.

But even then, her 76 off 95 emerged as a figure of valiance for a nation that plays boldly, unabashedly, and always as one.

And that Mignon du Preez is the beating heart of a line-up of talents that plays cricket hearteningly has made our cricketing journey abundantly joyful and offered a spark of daring to the Proteas fire!

Long live the legend.