Proteas Women have nothing to lose – Luus

Captain Suné Luus says the Proteas Women’s previous World Cup disappointments will serve as motivation ahead of today’s semi-final against England at Newlands.

The winner will face Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup final on Sunday after the defending champions beat India by five runs in the first semi-final yesterday.

“It’s going to be a big occasion but we have been on the other [losing] side too many times to know exactly what it feels like,” Luus said.

“The girls today [yesterday] in our meeting, we just said we know how it feels on the other side and we don’t necessarily want to be there again so there’s enough motivation for us to just go out and enjoy the game.

“We have nothing to lose, so we are going to try and play our best cricket and enjoy the moment.”

The Proteas, who have only won three of their 23 T20Is against England, qualified for the semi-finals after winning two of their four pool matches, against New Zealand and Bangladesh. They lost to Sri Lanka and Australia.

“It was hard work to get into the semi-finals, so I am really proud of the girls,” Luus said.

“We are searching for that perfect game where all three aspects of the game click together nicely, so that’s definitely something we will be working on. For the batting, to work on our KPIs [key performance indicator] and for all those boxes to be ticked, as well as in the bowling and fielding department.”

The semi-final will start at 15:00 and be broadcast on SuperSport Grandstand.