Luus chuffed at World T20 team selection
Proteas women’s leg-spinner Sune Luus made the World T20 team of the tournament after a supreme bowling effort.
|||Sune Luus didn’t even know there was a team of the tournament for the ICC World T20 event. Now that she’s in it, following some superb performances for the South African women’s team at the recent competition in India, she knows all about it.
“It was only when Vincent Barnes posted it on our chat group, that I knew such a thing even existed,” Luus laughed. “Obviously, it’s a great honour, totally unexpected, because I never expected that I could ever be in a team like that.”
She shares her spot - a recognition from the ICC for the best performers at the tournament - with some of the modern greats of women’s cricket including West Indies skipper Stafanie Taylor, England’s Charlotte Edwards and Australia’s Meg Lanning.
“I felt I really performed well over there, I achieved most of the goals I’d set for myself,” said Luus. An unexpected achievement for the young leg-spinner, was recording the tournament’s best figures, 5/8, versus Ireland in Bangalore.
“It was really funny, at the team meeting on the morning of the game we were just analysing some of their batters, and my teammates were reminding me of the last time we played Ireland in Doha in 2014, and the only boundaries they managed came off my bowling. I was just bowling these loopys,” nothing landed. So of course when I got the first wicket, in my first over, everyone just laughed, someone said: see what happens when you actually pitch the ball?”
The fifth wicket nearly never came too. “I’d taken four, and getting five wickets in a T20 game is very hard, so when I’d created a chance and it was dropped I was really worried, off the very next ball we missed a stumping and then I really thought the chance to do it was gone. But fortunately their batter scooped another catch to midwicket. I can’t explain how it felt, it was just amazing. It’s something that can never be taken away from me.”
Despite the recognition for her achievements - she finished the tournament with seven wickets, and the third best bowling average - and her happiness at achieving personal goals, the team’s failure to progress out of the group proved bitterly disappointing.
“Before the tournament we’d won against England for the first time, we beat the West Indies (who went on to win the tournament) in a series. We went into the competition with a lot of confidence,” Luus explained. “We felt we could win it; we just didn’t do enough at the crucial moments.”
At 20, Luus is one of the young guns, and very much the future of the South African women’s team. She already has a lot of experience - 20 ODIs and 36 T20Is - and with the 2022 Women’s World T20 to be hosted on South African shores, is the captaincy a goal?
“I have a lot to learn about the sport and about life. I am very close to Mignon du Preez, she’s one of my best friends, and I’m learning from her all the time. It would be a huge honour, but I think it’s still a long way off.”
Luus is currently studying for a Sport Science certificate and a degree in Education through the University of Pretoria.
“After cricket, when I’m 35 or if my body gives up on me - hopefully that’s still a long way away - I’d like to combine my two big interests - sport and teaching. I want to stay in the sports industry when I finish playing cricket.” - The Star