Auckland : South African women’s cricket skipper Sune Luus has said that her side will be banking on the several tight matches they have played in recent times to make an impact in the ICC Women’s World Cup, scheduled to be played across six venues in New Zealand from March 4.The 26-year-old all-rounder, who is just eight WODIs short of reaching the century mark, added that the management had tried out several combinations in the run-up to the tournament and had found the “right fit” to reach the final of the World Cup.”We as a team have been preparing for the last five years, since the 2017 World Cup in England where we fell short in the semifinals. In our preparation, we have tried many combinations to find the right fit for this World Cup.
After many successful and unsuccessful games and series, we are confident that whoever walks out onto the park on the day can do the job for us. We have a strong squad with a combination of experienced players and a couple of players who will be making their World Cup debut,” said Luus in her column for the ICC on Sunday.
She said that the team’s morale was high after an extremely productive year.”We are coming off an extremely good year, and I know that the team’s confidence is high. Around the same time in 2020, we played a series against New Zealand on some of the same grounds we will be playing in this tournament and were very successful. I am hoping that the preparation we had on that tour and the knowledge we gained will play a huge role in this tournament.”She added that being one of the teams to have played the most Super Overs in ODIs had steeled it for crunch matches.
“We have also just played the West Indies at home, where we played a couple of games under lights. I think we’re also one of the few teams who has played the most super overs in ODIs. We couldn’t have asked for better preparation.”Luus added that her team will take every match as a final and just focus on its strengths, not bothering too much about the opposition.”The most important part for us is to not focus too much on our opposition. Every match will be played like a final, therefore it is imperative that we only focus on what we do best and what we can control. In our previous series, this is what worked best for us. We tried to do the basics as best as we could, and the result took care of itself. It is so easy to get caught up in the hype and excitement of a World Cup, but it is going to be important for us to stay in our little bubble and be focused on our goal.”Hopefully (we) reach the final that we’ve been missing out on, on three different occasions,” she added.