Going in as underdogs will lessen pressure on Proteas

Proteas captain Sune Luus says they have embraced the tag of underdogs going into their semifinal clash with England in the Women’s T20 World Cup today at Newlands (3.30pm). 

The stakes for today’s game will be high as a place in the final is up for grabs, and the odds are on England to win in front of what will be a packed Newlands. The Proteas have been inconsistent in this tournament, while England have been performing at a high level. 

Luus believes that going to the match as underdogs will ease the pressure on them and allow the team to play their cricket freely. 

“That’s great, if there’s no pressure on us, then we can just go out there and enjoy, play our cricket freely,  enjoy the moment and try to do our best,” said Luus when addressing the media yesterday. 

“It’s going to be a big occasion tomorrow, I think we have been on the other side of it too many times to know how it feels like.

“In our meeting with the girls, we said we know how it feels to be on the other side and we don’t necessarily want to be there again. There’s enough motivation for us to go out there and enjoy the game, we have nothing to lose.” 

The Proteas skipper said they would use their performance against Bangladesh as a blueprint. She hopes that the batting line-up takes after how openers Tazmin Brits and Laura Wolvaardt saw off the innings. 

“We are searching for that perfect game where all three aspects of the game kick together and work together nicely. That’s something we are going to be focused on, for the batting to be working, boxes to be ticked as well as the bowling and fielding,” said the 27-year-old.

“After the 10 over, the way the two batters went about their chase, that's how we want to start tomorrow,” Luus told the media.