‘Not our best’, admits Luus, as Proteas scrape past Pakistan

The Proteas women produced another unconvincing performance as they edged Pakistan by just six runs in their second ICC Women’s World Cup match at the Bay Oval in Tauranga on Friday.

Despite the early struggles from one of the pre-tournament favourites, the Proteas have still managed to get off to a good start with two wins from two and can now build on that with a massive clash against England coming up on Monday.

“What a World Cup so far. It’s been nerve racking, but you have to love the World Cup. No game is an easy game, so I am just happy with the team’s performance,” said Proteas captain Sune Luus.

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“Even though we are not playing our best cricket yet I think it is encouraging to see that we can still get over the line,” Luus added.

“I don’t know if it is nerves or what you can put it down to, but we can put these two games behind us now and take the positives out of it and see what we still need to improve on with England coming up next.”

Star bowler Shabnim Ismail came through in the clutch, defending 10 off the final over and finishing with figures of 3/41 which saw her named Player-of-the-Match.

Ismail was backed up well by Ayabonga Khaka (2/43) and Marizanne Kapp (2/43), while despite the below-par total, Laura Wolvaardt (75), Luus (62), Chloe Tryon (31) and Trisha Chetty (31) were the major contributors with the bat.

“It is really encouraging to see different players coming to the party. Shabnim is our pocket player so we can always rely on her, and Trisha is I think one of the best keepers in the world and she impressed with the bat today as well, and I think Laura up front with the bat also did an exceptional job,” said Luus.

“But we are taking it one game at a time and we still haven’t played our best cricket, so it’s exciting to see that it is still coming.”