Suzie Bates has experienced a lot in her career but nothing quite like a huge homecoming in Dunedin.
"I've promised myself to just enjoy the whole occasion because it's only going to happen once."
The White Ferns all-rounder is preparing for the upcoming T20 series against Pakistan, which starts on Sunday.
However, Tuesday's match will hold extra significance as the Otago Uni Oval will be renamed as "Suzie Bates Oval" in honour of the first White Fern to play 300 matches.
"If I had said that when I was 18 I was going to play 300 games I wouldn't have believed it. There's been times that I thought I wasn't going to keep playing because of the landscape and having to get a career but I've been able to keep playing and it's been semi-professional and professional, so I'm fortunate," Bates said.
"It's crazy to think they've named it after me. It is a really nice touch but I'm going to get a lot of stick from the teammates."
But one former teammate couldn't think of anything better for her good mate.
"I refer to Suzie as the unofficial mayor of Dunedin," former White Fern Katey Martin said.
"If she could go out and score 100 on her home ground and hold her bat high with the big smile on her face which she does most days, it will be fitting for her career."
"I will be emotional on Tuesday," Martin said. "I think a number of people will as well 'cos we've been on the journey for those 25 years since she was a young kid with gm batt with her pigtails."
Bates made her White Ferns debut in 2006. She even switched codes to play for the Tall Ferns. It is fair to say the Dunedin trailblazer has always been up for a challenge.
"She always wants to win but she always has that smiling assassin smile on her face," former Black Cap Craig Cumming, who now coaches Bates in the Otago Sparks, said.
"Half of the team play because of Suzie. You talk to them about their stories and they play for the Sparks now because Suzie came to their school, so they're now playing for one of their heroes, really."
"She has created female cricket the way it is now and that's something again she won't acknowledge but half of my team play the game because of Suzie," Cumming said.
But his earliest memory is in the early 2000s.
"I remember an 18-year-old playing for the Sparks, I was playing for the Volts. Everyone heard about the talent. She used to do a lot of fitness training with us, and the number one goal was you couldn't let Suzie beat you. Whenever we got to the stairs which are over by Logan Park — Suzie was the queen of the stairs."
She has a knack of beating the boys — Bates is currently the world's leading run scorer in T20s, surpassing Virat Kohli this year.
It has been 300 matches full of highs, lows, the burden of captaincy, as well as injuries.
"That's what I'm most proud of. There are times where I could have walked away and felt like maybe it was the right thing — I know that when I walk away, I will not have left anything out there that's for sure."
She still has the goal of winning a World Cup tournament. But the immediate task is Pakistan, with Bates hoping she will be raining sixes in Dunedin.
"As long as there's no rain! Just raining sixes!!"
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