Take a bow, Dané

Take a bow, Dané van Niekerk and Co! No, it’s not the other Van Niekerk, who’s burning up tracks from Jamaica to Ostrava at the moment… This Van Niekerk is a right-arm leg-break bowler, who this week delivered a landmark performance in the World Cup in England as the Proteas cricket team crushed the West Indies by 10 wickets in a round-robin match in Leicester.

Van Niekerk is perhaps best known as a toporder batter, but she did not get a chance to bat in this match after participating in the annihilation of the West Indies.

Van Niekerk put the Caribbean side in to bat, and by the 26th over the side led by one of the best players in the world, Jamaican Stafanie Taylor, had been dismissed for a paltry 48.

Yes, this is the same West Indies team who are the current T20 world title-holders and were runners-up to Australia in the 2013 World Cup in India in the 50-over format.

In a rout of this magnitude, several firsts were bound to make the scorebooks.

Van Niekerk accounted for one of them, becoming the first bowler in an ODI to claim four wickets without conceding a run.

Her figures read 4/0, while those of opening bowler Marizanne Kapp were 4/14.

After three matches in the tournament (one was rained off), South Africa are unbeaten, and they have a tough assignment today when they take on England in Bristol.

On form and with a particularly strong line-up of bowlers, the Proteas are a good bet to reach the semi-finals. This is a quality team that is going places. All their matches are being shown live. So get behind them – your support will make a difference.