On T20I: Kayla Reyneke loves a laugh, but it’s her knack for closing out games that has been the highlight of her short international career so far. Twice in the space of two months, Kayla has turned what looked like lost causes into wins for South Africa and made it all look routine.
On T20I debut against Pakistan in Potchefstroom, she walked in and hit 29 not out, including hitting a match-winning six. Later, in Christchurch, on ODI debut against New Zealand, she went one better: hitting two sixes in the final over to snatch a victory South Africa had no business claiming in the first place.
That double finishing act made her the first woman to win Player of the Match on both T20I and ODI debuts. More than the stats and accolades, it was Kayla’s demeanour which was more striking – calm and uncluttered, as if she had rehearsed the execution of those moments a thousand times.
Ask her how she stays ice-cool in jittery situations like the ones in Potchefstroom and Christchurch, Kayla, with nine T20I caps, insists there’s no secret formula behind it. “I really don’t have any secrets. If you need to hit a six off the last ball, you need to hit a six off the last ball. You exclude everything – the noise, scoreboard, everything and you just focus on the ball and hit it.
“People always ask me about those moments. But I was just really focusing on the cricket ball. When it’s two off one or six off one, I always practice that in power-hitting sessions. So for me, it’s about how do you put yourself in that situation in practice, and how do you implement it or execute it in a game? I just wanted to smash the ball and luckily it came off,” recalls Kayla in an exclusive conversation with IANS ahead of her first Women’s T20 World Cup.
Kayla’s composure in acing pressure cooker situations isn’t some innate gift. It’s a skill she has engineered session by session through years of practice. “I always put myself in pressure situations at training and scenario-based stuff. It will never fully come off 100 percent.
“But when it does, it’s amazing and that’s just how cricket works. One day you’ll get a gun day. But the next day you’ll just be grinding and grafting through it because that’s cricket. It has its ups and downs. It’s about staying in the moment and working as hard as you can.”
The philosophy extends to her training sessions, which are meant to be purposeful and organised around clarity of intent. “With my batting, bowling and fielding, there needs to be a purpose in what you’re doing. Going to a training session and going to a match are two different things. But my routine needs to stay the same.
“When I’m hitting balls, what do I want to get out of this session? With my bowling, is it variations, or is it my normal stuff to batters? There’s always got to be something behind it. I think sometimes we make cricket so complicated. But at the end of the day, it’s ourselves. You’ve just got to believe that we actually can do it. It’s really not impossible. So it’s quite simple,” she added.
That inner calm in Kayla was forged in the nets under Western Province coach and ex-South Africa player Claire Terblanche, and later hardened in the Under-19 setup under former Proteas cricketer Dinesha Devnarain. There, Kayla also grew into a leader, steering South Africa to the 2025 U19 Women’s T20 World Cup final while bagging 11 wickets at 11.54. Those closing-over heroics on debut were simply the most visible proof of a temperament built long before.
“I’ve known coach Claire since I was 11 years old, so it’s been a very long time – I think she’s pretty tired of me now. But a lovely human being and has always been there for me. Then in the U19 space, I went under coach Dinesha. I haven’t known her for as long, but working with her has been an absolute honour. They both have a lot of cricket knowledge and it’s lovely to work with both of them.”
Before cricket took over, Kayla had other sporting pursuits. At high school she dabbled in hockey, but it was javelin throw where she excelled more. In 2019, at just 14, she won the South African age-group title with a throw of 45.97 metres. But by grade 10, though, the choice became unavoidable.
Competing in Javelin throw had left her with injuries, including to the lower back, and that made the decision easier than it might have been – cricket, with its wider horizon, won for Kayla. “Javelin gave me a lot of injuries. Whereas in cricket, yes, there are still injuries. But there are a lot of pros to it. You play with people. You get to meet new friends. You get to see the world. I just continued to follow my love for the game and made that decision at 16.”
The pivot to off-spin bowling accidentally happened for Kayla. She began as a pace bowler – ‘I didn’t bowl fast at all, but I felt very fast at that time’ – she says with a chuckle. One day, fooling around in a net session, Kayla started experimenting with off-spin bowling and Claire told her to go ahead with it.
“Ever since then I’ve just been bowling off-spin and it’s been helping a lot. I’m obviously still learning about my bowling and my batting. But I really want to up my skill when it comes to off-spin. Just trying to up-skill every day.”
Knowing about her call-up to the Proteas squad was as unscripted as anything else in Kayla’s story. She was in the middle of an afternoon nap when her phone rang from an unknown number – it was of head coach Mandla Mashimbayi.
“I was a bit like a deurmekaar – that’s an Afrikaans saying, means all over the place. I answered the phone and it was Coach Mandla, who just told me I was part of the Pakistan series. Even before that, we’d had a high-performance camp and I was prepping for the domestic season. I was really zoning in especially with my batting and then just like that, a phone call, and things changed ridiculously.”
On the cusp of her T20 World Cup debut, where she and Nadine de Klerk will handle finishing duties, Kayla is still catching up with the speed of how her life has reshaped in 2026. “Crazy, actually. It’s crazy how things can change in a couple of months. I always say that. So I’m just trying to ride this wave as much as possible and enjoy every moment and really just let it sink in. If you asked me a year ago how I would be sitting here, I would have told you you’d be lying to me.”
The Proteas environment is built precisely on the values Kayla had already instilled in herself – hard work without noise, and purpose without panic. “Playing with the people that I’ve looked up to since I was very young – you never fully know what’s going on in the squad when you’re not there.
“Getting to know Chloe, Sune, Kappie – sharing a dressing room with them is amazing. You can joke around and all that. But when it comes to work, they are really hardworking people. When you’re not doing something on a day, you feel really bad.
“Everybody wants to work as hard as the person next to them. That’s what really motivates me. But I’ve also been having a lot of fun even off the cricket field – going for coffee runs, a bit of banter. Really just enjoying it,” she said.
The returning Dane van Niekerk and Shabnim Ismail, who stepped back from international cricket in 2023, have added yet another dimension to a group that feels close to its best. “They’re both really hardworking people. Turning up and zoning in on how their work needs to be done – that motivates me to always give my best.
“Having them back in the space is really amazing. To play and hopefully take the field with them is something I’ve dreamt of. Even off the cricket field, they’re lovely people. Really good to have them back,” added Kayla.
England is unfamiliar territory, so is a 12-team Women’s T20 World Cup. Yet Kayla’s mantra for it is delight, not caution. “Man, oh my word – cricket is our job, but if you think about it, it’s really a fun job that we have. Not a lot of people can say that. Yes, we do a job we love, but we also get to see the world – that’s crazy.
“We can have a lot of banter in between, but when it comes to work, we work and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s my first time in the UK. It’s such a privilege to be here. It’s my first World Cup also. So it’s crazy to think about.”
Her parents are not in England to see her in action, but after long days and big matches, Kayla chats with them every single day. “Unfortunately not. Hopefully, in the future, but I would have loved to have them here. They’ve been my support system throughout the years for very long.
“Always having them on my side, it’s really special. After having a long day, a training or a match, they are my go-to people that I can just jump on a call and say, ‘Hello, mum, hello, dad. This is what happened and etc.’ They are my go-to people and I’ll be forever grateful for that.”
As she steps onto the big stage, Kayla Reyneke carries both the unknown factor and an innate calmness under fire – a combination that could unsettle opponents in this tournament. South Africa are banking on that if they are to finally cross the line and lift that elusive silverware.
Article Source: IANS