‘This is the ultimate one for us,’ says Luus ahead of World Cup opener

The Proteas women’s stalwarts are eager to lead their side to victory in what could turn out to be their final major tournament together, as they open their ICC Women’s World Cup campaign against Bangladesh on Saturday in Dunedin, New Zealand.

The core senior group of Mignon du Preez, Shabnim Ismail, Marizanne Kapp, Trisha Chetty, Masabata Klaas and Tazmin Brits are all into their 30s and will be keen to take their side a few steps further than they did in the last edition.

At the 2017 World Cup the Proteas went on a superb run, upsetting a number of more fancied teams to reach the semis where they were just edged out by eventual champions England.

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Captain Sune Luus, deputising in the injury enforced absence of regular captain Dane van Niekerk, believes that this is the big one for the team.

 “We have played a couple of World Cups together but this is the ultimate one for us,” said Luus.

“For a lot of our experienced players, this is their big one. Hopefully, we can make it count and make it an enjoyable one. We have a well-balanced team and if all three departments fire, we can beat any team in the world.

“The challenge for us is to get all three skills on the day to fire and make sure we do that consistently. We are all feeling pretty confident. We had a run around the park today (Friday) and it’s a pretty cool scene here in Dunedin, it’s a very nice ground and we’re all excited to get going.” 

Against Bangladesh the team will, however, have to do without their standout player of the past year, opening batter Lizelle Lee who was named ICC women’s ODI player of the year for 2021, as she is still in quarantine after a delayed arrival in New Zealand due to the birth of her first child. 

Tazmin Brits has thus stepped into the breach alongside regular opener Laura Wolvaardt in their two warm-up losses against India and England, and Luus hopes she will rise to the challenge. 

“We always knew she (Lee) wouldn’t be available for the first game so we’ve given a couple of players a run up front and hopefully we’ve got the combination right,” admitted Luus.

“Hopefully she’ll (Brits) make it difficult for Lizelle to come back into the side. 

“For us, the warm-ups were all about assessing the conditions and taking out of it what we could. There were a lot of positives and it gave a lot of players some game time and confidence in the middle as well.”