White Ferns captain Suzie Bates never thought she would make it to 100 games for the New Zealand women's cricket team when she first joined as an 18-year-old.
White Ferns captain Suzie Bates. Photo: Photosport
The now 29-year-old will join New Zealand Cricket president Debbie Hockley and White Ferns Coach Haidee Tiffen in the centurions club when her side takes on South Africa in their world cup pool match in Derby tonight.
A dual international, Bates is not only handy with bat and ball, she was part of the New Zealand women's basketball team that played in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing before switching her attention full time to cricket.
Bates said her longevity in the sport even surprised her.
"I was at university and cricket was a bit of a hobby and I didn't really see it going professional so to still be playing at 29 and play in my 100th game is pretty exciting," Bates said.
The White Ferns got their world cup campaign off to a strong start with a nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka on the weekend but have been troubled by sixth-ranked South Africa in previous tournaments.
Bates said focussing on a strong performance against South Africa will be imperative.
"We can't take any team lightly in this competition.
"As soon as you do you can slip up so every game we want to make sure we can get some points from it but there's going to be some really tough games coming up and South Africa's another challenge. We've had some success against them recently but they've also bet us at world cups in the past."
The match gets underway at 9.30pm.
