There’s a certain symmetry in cricket that never ceases to amaze me. Some may call it destiny, or even fate. Many will hope that on a warm Paarl afternoon in December, Faye Tunnicliffe’s long-awaited date with her cricketing destiny became reality.
The scorebook will record her Player of the Match performance for the Proteas against Ireland as one that comprised seven fours, six twos and eleven singles. It will show that she scored 51 runs in 42 balls at a strike rate of 121.4. Before being dismissed by the first ball of the 14th over, she shared partnerships of 78 off 56 balls with Suné Luus and 38 off 23 balls with Captain Laura Wolvaardt.
It is the story behind the stats that is more telling. As she eased the 5th ball of Aimee Maguire’s second over down to long on for a single, the wait for cricketing redemption was over. Her “scrappy” innings, as she described it, had reached a critical milestone. Raising her bat to her home crowd and an applauding dugout, it seems fitting that this moment should come in the province where her journey started, in front of family and friends.
16-year-old Somerset College pupil Faye made her senior cricket debut for Boland Women at the end of the 2014/15 season, at the Irene Villagers Cricket Ground outside Pretoria, in a 50-over match against a Northerns Women’s team. Her Proteas opening partner, Suné, already an international player, was in the opposition that day.
There was another player on the field on the 7th March 2015 for whom December 7th at Boland Park is significant. Stacey Lackay was among the teammates for Faye on the trip to the north. How apt for her to be making her on-field international umpiring debut in South Africa on this important day.
Faye’s Proteas path has not been easy. Selected as a 19-year-old for South Africa as a wicketkeeper/batter while still playing for Boland, she made her debut in the Caribbean against the West Indies in a warm-up series before the 2018 T20 Cricket World Cup. The WI tour and the World Cup would prove to be a stern test for the young Faye. She kept wicket in 3 of the 5 matches she played, with mixed batting returns.
Her promise was clear, and Faye was rewarded with a call-up to the national team for the T20 and ODI series against Sri Lanka in February 2019. Batting down the order, she kept in all 6 matches in the absence of Lizelle Lee, but was only able to bat in 4 of the 6 matches, and only got into double figures once. She was then left out of the team for the Pakistan inbound tour later that year.
Following her move to Western Province in the 2019/20 season, Faye once again showed her class, with some outstanding performances at T20 level, including her first century, in the Women’s Super League, held in Irene. Her 106* off 62 balls was a massive breakthrough innings, her first score over 50 in the format. Despite there being no domestic cricket in the 2020/21 Covid season, her form did get her a call-up for the Proteas in two T20Is in early 2021, one against Sri Lanka and one against India.
Two quiet seasons would follow, but Faye’s work ethic and determination could not be blunted. Failure to make the Proteas squad for the home T20 World Cup in early 2023 would have deflated many budding Proteas, but not Faye. She worked even harder and enjoyed a stellar 2023/24 season, 341 runs at 48.71, including her second T20 century, 108* against the Titans Women at SuperSport Park. Combined with a good start to the 2024/25 season, she received a call-up to the England series in November 2024 as a reward. It was a tough tour, and having 3 years out of the Proteas set-up seemed to tell in Faye’s on-field performances. Her highest reward was 22 in a slow 28 balls, and her confidence at the highest level seemed low.
Fast-forward a year, and Faye has continued to set records with Western Province at provincial level. This season has seen her fluency improve, and in both List A cricket, where she recorded her and WP’s highest score of 138* against North-West in Potchefstroom, and in T20 cricket, where at Newlands she scored 110* against the Titans, she has dominated the bowling attacks. Her demolition of the Titans’ Gabriella Sequeira’s last over for 27 (4 sixes) is a testament to her destructive capability, and probably the best strokeplay ever seen in Women’s domestic cricket at the ground.
The second-highest run-scorer ever in domestic T20 cricket behind Tazmin Brits, Faye’s pedigree is clear. Having mostly dispensed with the keeping gloves, her contribution in the field is outstanding. Sharp, quick across the ground and steady under a high ball, it is all testament to a cricketer who has re-invented herself. All this good work without reward seemed to be the theme. Friday’s Newlands 1 off 4 balls was not the ideal start to the series. Would Sunday’s encounter at Boland Park be another opportunity?
Thankfully, it was.
Looking nervous and struggling to get both Orla Prendergast and Alana Dalzell away, on 5 off 9 deliveries, Tunnicliffe’s despairing waft at a wide Dalzell delivery went straight up in the air. Boland Park held its collective breath, Laura Delany got underneath a regulation catch at backward point, and put it down. The next ball was wide and full, gleefully accepted and sent to the boundary cushions for four. Underway now, jangling nerves a thing of the past, her home crowd, on the ground where it all started, saluted every run.
The 9th December 2025, will be Faye’s 27th birthday. She will celebrate it by being part of a Proteas team that will walk out to sing the national anthem at Willowmoore Park in Benoni. Seven years on from Bridgetown, Barbados, and after only 14 T20I and 3 ODI caps, could a scrappy milestone on a picture-perfect Paarl afternoon in December be the symmetry needed to reignite Faye’s international career? I certainly hope so.
