Brits' blitz puts her in rare company

Tazmin Brits went, in Bristol on Thursday, where only 2.92% of all cricketers have gone. Just 1.74% of them are women. More than twice as many men have been there and done that, but their number is still tiny: 3.67%.

These are players who have scored centuries in T20Is, a club Brits joined with her 69-ball 114 not out for South Africa in a T20 World Cup game against the Netherlands.

In all, 238 of the 8,141 cricketers who have played T20Is have reached three figures. Among the 4,982 men, there are 183 century-makers. The women's equation is 55 out of 3,159.

Brits' blast began in an opening stand of 121 with Laura Wolvaardt, who was caught behind for 45 off 36. Brits and Annerie Dercksen - who made a 16-ball 37 not out - then added 87 off 39 to take the South Africans to a total of 208/1.

The Dutch replied with 120/8, which keeps Wolvaardt's team alive in what promises to be a tight race for a place in the semifinals. South Africa, who have lost the final of the last three World Cups, regardless of format, will consider it a failure if they don't make it at least that far.

"I always like to think that somewhere along the line I'll be able to help this team win a World Cup," Brits told a press conference.

She hit 15 fours and three sixes in the highest score, so far, of a tournament in which Chamari Athapaththu and Danni Wyatt-Hodge have also made hundreds.

Brits credited Mandla Mashimbyi with pushing the total past 200. "I think it was at the second drinks break when he came [onto the field] and said, 'Sixes need to fly now.'" South Africa were 121/1 after 13.3 at that interval. They hadn't hit any sixes, but five flew in the remainder of the innings.

The lack of big hits was curious on a pitch that yielded only two wickets in the first 34.3 overs. Also odd was that, having batted above their status as bona fide minnows to reach 100/1 in 14.3 overs, the Dutch lost seven wickets for 20 runs in the space of 32 balls.

Having opened in 62 of her 79 T20I innings, Brits was shifted to No. 3 for the home series against India in April, when she scored 64 runs in five innings. She was left out for the first two games of the T20 World Cup - against Australia and Pakistan - when Sune Luus opened with Wolvaardt. Luus made one and five. Brits returned against India, and scored 40 off 36 in a must-win game that South Africa duly did. Did she think she had reclaimed her spot at the top of the order?

"I don't know. Our coach, he's got his own little tricks. It seems to be working. We just trust the process. It's not the XI that defines us; it's the 15. So whoever bats in whatever position, we just try and make sure we get over the line."

With a century behind her name, Brits should surely stay put - in the XI and in her current role. She has also scored seven hundreds in her 57 innings in ODIs, which puts her among the 13.80% of players who have made centuries in that format. That breaks down to 16.36% among men and 8.33% of women.

Women play exponentially fewer Tests than men, so the 22.98% of the total number of those who have earned caps in the longest format have also scored centuries skews the equation. Suffice to say that 25.83% of the men and 10.25% of the women own Test hundreds.

You could argue it should be easier to score a T20I hundred because the pitches are likely to flatter. But the comparative lack of available deliveries and the urgency required by batters in the format - and the risks they need to take to deliver quick runs - make centuries scarce. While Test cricket offers bowlers the most favourable conditions, it also gives batters much more time and many more deliveries to dig themselves in at a serene pace. The ODI game is, as in everything else, stuck in the grey area between cricket's most emphatic formats.

But a century, in whichever format, against minnows and massive opposition alike, in even the most docile conditions, will always be heralded as a major achievement. In an increasingly splintered cricket landscape, and in an era that resembles what has gone before less with each passing match, that is a rare constant.