Photo Credit: ICC
Suné Luus has backed South Africa to ‘take the fight’ to Australia as they prepare for a crunch Group 1 encounter in Gqeberha.
Luus’ side recovered from their opening-day defeat against Sri Lanka in style by dismissing New Zealand for 67 to secure a 65-run win which reignited their semi-final hopes.
They face a daunting task against an Australian side who have started the defence of their crown with three consecutive wins but Luus is confident an attacking mindset can pay dividends.
“We have a world-class batting attack and a world-class bowling attack, and we’re playing against a world-class team, so it is going to be a great clash tomorrow,” she said.
“I don’t think there’s going to be any reason for us to stand back. The only way to beat a team like Australia is if you take the fight to them and that’s definitely what we’re going to try and do.
“I think we can definitely pull it off. Our top three maybe hasn’t fired the way they wanted to but we all know the ability they have. It’s just a matter of one innings for either of them to get into momentum.
“This is definitely another opportunity for them to fire and to play that aggressive cricket that we also want to play, and that we know Australia is going to play.”
South Africa’s most recent T20I meeting with Australia came at the last ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in a nail-biting rain-affected semi-final which the eventual champions won by five runs.
That extended South Africa’s winless run in this fixture but Luus believes her side are capable of upsetting the history book.
“I don’t think that’s a hurdle,” she said. “It’s very exciting and it gives us the opportunity to play cricket with freedom and to know that, whatever happens, we want to leave everything on the field.
“We have absolutely nothing to lose.”
Australia head coach Shelley Nitschke, meanwhile, insists her side will not be resting on their laurels as they look to maintain their 100 per cent start.
Nitschke is expecting a tough test from the hosts and is only looking ahead rather than reflecting on previous glories.
“We haven’t gone into specifics discussing that game (2020 semi-final) and they have a different look to their side now,” said Australia’s head coach.
“There are a few new faces and a different style of play that we have to be wary of, and we have some players who weren’t there during that T20 World Cup as well.
“They have nothing to lose, so we expect them to throw everything at us and we need to make sure we’re ready.
“They’ve got some really damaging players, both with bat and ball, that can take a game away from us and they have the support of the home crowd, so we need to make sure we are on our game.
“We’ll just be taking every game as it comes and making sure that the opposition that’s in front of us, we’re well and truly prepared for them. But we haven’t referred to that [semi-final] too much at this point.”
Name of Author: ICC
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global governing body for cricket, founded in 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference. Renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, it became the ICC in 1987. Headquartered in Dubai, UAE, the ICC has 108 member nations.
