Mignon du Preez

Mignon du Preez (born 13 June 1989) is a South African former cricketer, who was the women's team captain in all three forms of cricket, Test matches, ODIs and T20Is, from 2007 to 2018. A right-handed batter and occasional wicket-keeper, du Preez made her debut for the South Africa national women's cricket team in January 2007, aged seventeen. Besides being the South African player with most matches as captain in both ODIs and T20Is, she is the highest run-scorer for South Africa women in ODIs and T20Is. In April 2022, du Preez announced her retirement from Test and ODI cricket, allowing her to focus on the shorter format of the game and spend more time with her family. In December 2022, she further announced her retirement from T20Is, but confirmed her continued availability for domestic T20 leagues.

Early life and education Du Preez was born and raised in Pretoria. She started playing cricket "by accident" at the age of four. Her father was the coach of her brother's u/7 mini cricket team, and she would watch the team's games.

Career Du Preez made her debut for South Africa in 2007.

In 2014, du Preez captained South Africa in her debut and only Test match, against India at the Srikantadatta Narasimha Raja Wadeyar Ground in Mysore. India batted first, and declared at 400 for 6. Du Preez then scored 102 in her maiden Test innings, but her team's total of 234 was not enough to prevent India from enforcing the follow on. South Africa made only 132 in its second innings, and lost the match by an innings and 34 runs. On 21 June 2016, she decided to step down as South Africa women's captain, after having led the team for almost 5 years (since 2011) in one Test, 46 ODIs and 50 T20Is.

On 25 June 2017, in South Africa's match against Pakistan in the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup, she became the first woman for South Africa to play in 100 ODI matches.

In March 2018, she was one of fourteen players to be awarded a national contract by Cricket South Africa ahead of the 2018–19 season. In October 2018, she was named in South Africa's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies.

In November 2018, she was contracted by Melbourne Stars for the 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season. In September 2019, she was named in the Devnarain XI squad for the inaugural edition of the Women's T20 Super League in South Africa. In January 2020, she was named in South Africa's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. In their opening match of the tournament, against England, du Preez played in her 100th WT20I match.

On 23 July 2020, du Preez was named in South Africa's 24-woman squad to begin training in Pretoria, ahead of their tour to England. In 2021, she was drafted by Manchester Originals for the inaugural season of The Hundred.

In February 2022, she was named in South Africa's team for the 2022 Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand. In April 2022, she was bought by the Trent Rockets for the 2022 season of The Hundred in England.

On 7 April 2022, she announced her retirement from longer formats of cricket.

In May 2022, she played five matches for the Warriors team in the 2022 FairBreak Invitational T20 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. During the Invitational, she scored a total of 120 runs with a top score of 75*, and also took arguably the catch of the tournament to dismiss her South African teammate, Laura Wolvaardt.

She announced her retirement from all forms of international cricket on 9 December 2022. She and her husband, Tony van der Merwe, an urban planner, were married on 5 December 2015. In June 2024 the couple announced Mignon was pregnant with twins. Du Preez was raised in a Christian household, and dedicated her life to Jesus while attending a youth seminar at the age of 10. She has said that the sports in which she has been involved have "... never placed any limitation on my Christianity ..."