SA women’s captain Sune Luus calls for better batting performance

SA captain Sune Luus has called on her top order batters to up their game after they confirmed their place in the semifinal stage of the ICC Women’s World Cup in New Zealand on Thursday.

The Proteas joined Australia as the second team to qualify for the semifinals after their penultimate group stage match against the West Indies was rained out in Wellington on Thursday.

When the match against the West Indies was abandoned after 10.5 overs, SA were on 61/4 with top order batters Lizelle Lee, Laura Wolvaardt, Tazmin Brits and Luus having scored a combined 14 runs.

When they returned to the pavilion, Mignon du Preez (38) and Marizanne Kapp (5) were rebuilding SA’s innings with an unbeaten and promising partnership of 39.

The 26-year-old Luus, SA’s second-highest run-scorer at the tournament, said they are happy to be in the semis but have to improve in their last group stage match against India on Sunday and in the semis. “There are still a lot of batters who would be happy to get runs,” she said. 

“Lizelle Lee at the top and our No 3 spot as well. Our bowling keeps hitting their strides and we pride ourselves on our fielding, so we would like to improve on our batting,” she said.

“The way Mignon batted, she has been shy of runs in the competition and she needed that for her confidence. Everybody’s extremely excited and happy to be in the semis.

“With the rain today it wasn’t ideal sitting around and waiting, it was not the best of starts but we still have to take the positives out of today. We are pretty pumped to be getting into the semifinal, it has been a dream for us for so long.”

Luus said they are not thinking about the final yet as their opponent has yet to be decided. “We still need to get through the semifinals. Needing to play England or India will be a tough game regardless and we need to get through that. We will take it game by game.

 “We would keep with our momentum and a win on Sunday [against India] will help with that.”