After Deepti Sharma (13 wickets) and Annabel Sutherland (12), there is South African left arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba with 11 scales who has dragged the Proteas out of the nightmarish start they had against England, while sending them into the semifinals.
While Tazmin Britts and Marizanne Kapp are the batting lynchpins, the Protea women have relied on Mlaba (pronounced Muh-laa-baa) to put brakes on rival scoring and the 25-year-old from a township in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, has provided them just the right breaks, as the Saffers defeated India, New Zealand and Bangladesh, and next face Pakistan.
Mlaba arrived in India a year after the heartbreak for 60 million South Africans of losing the T20 Women’s World Cup final.
Last year speaking to BBC after the finals loss to New Zealand, she said, “We’re still trying to find our feet, because we just don’t really know what we did wrong. I felt like we had the World Cup but I don’t know what happened to us on the day. But, we are going to come back and hopefully bring the trophy home soon.”
Mlaba had been the second best wicket taker back then too in Dubai with 12, behind New Zealander Melie Kerr’s 15, and had included a sensational win over reigning champions Australia in the semis. However the title remained elusive, as they lost by 32 runs in a stuttering run chase.
BBC wrote that in the township where Mlaba grew up, her first love was traditional Zulu dance. “Cricket was seen only as a sport for white people,” she recalled to BBC. She has come a long way since and was named KwaZulu-Natal sportswoman of the year, and had insisted where she came from could not define her no more.
“It is simple, it comes from support and nothing beats support, motivation and belief,” Mlaba told BBC, when asked about how to get more black women involved in cricket. “Cricket is not as big in our country as rugby or football. In my township, I see a lot of talented boys but some don’t become successful because of the mentality that it’s because they are from the township. I would say don’t look at where you’re coming from, it’s not about that. If you’re putting in the work, working harder, and working towards your goal, you will always succeed.”
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When her talent got spotted, Mlaba was helped by Cricket South Africa, who helped provide her accommodation when she needed to stay nearer to their training facilities because of the long and potentially unsafe journeys she would have to take, as per BBC.
She is iconic in Proteas colours due to her blonde short crop and dancing celebrations that follow each wicket. Of course she was reprimanded for her sendoff to Harleen Deol that went overboard as per ICC, after she said Tata Bye bye to the Indian.
But ICC had been sharp in picking out two clips of deliveries bowled by Mlaba and Keshav Maharaj during the men’s World Cup in 2023, where the ball was tossed up beautifully by each bowler and zipped through to shatter the stumps beating respective batters.
Mlaba will hope she can get in a few more of those, as SA once again chase an ICC title.
