“The team make it easy. They know what they want to do. I think I’m just there to say who bowls when.” — Suné Luus
Telford Vice | Cape Town
SIX wins on a single visit? Never before has a senior South Africa team of any description achieved that level of success in India. It’s a wonky stat in the sense that only twice previously have they played six or more matches on one trip to the biggest chunk of the subcontinent. But, considering their history there, that has been merciful.
So the women’s team that will depart Lucknow on Wednesday evening having beaten India 4-1 in the ODI series and 2-1 in the T20I rubber have set themselves apart. Even their losses have a place in the narrative of victory. The first, in the second ODI by nine wickets with 31.2 overs remaining, followed a resounding win in the opening match. Would South Africa recover from that dramatic deflation? Would they ever. They scored 223/4 to win the next match. Only five times had they hunted down a bigger target, and their total would have been still higher had the innings not been reduced to 46.3 overs. Then they made 269/3 to claim the fourth match — their highest successful chase. That decided the series with a game to spare, which South Africa also won. Their sole T20I loss came on the back of a rare failure by the batting order, but it was suffered in the dead rubber that followed them holding their nerve in teetering tension to win the second match — and with it the series — off the last ball.
Lizelle Lee piled up 288 runs in the ODIs to surge to the top of the world rankings. But Punam Raut was only 25 behind with Mithali Raj 78 adrift. No other South African reached 200 runs. Jhulan Goswami and Rajeshwari Gayakwad took eight wickets each and had economy rates of 3.51 and 3.56. South Africa’s leading wicket-taker was Shabnim Ismail, with seven. The series’ most economical bowler was Ayabonga Khaka, who went for just 3.44. But she took only one wicket. Something similar unfolded in the T20Is, where Shafali Verma was the leading run-scorer with 130. No South African, nor another Indian, reached 100. Gayakwad and Ismail each took four wickets but their economy rates diverged significantly: 4.75 for Gayakwad, 8.20 for Ismail.
As much as South Africa were a juggernaut as a team, their superiority was not clear at individual level. Maybe that’s the value of stability and experience. Hilton Moreeng has been their coach since December 2012. Mignon du Preez, Marizanne Kapp and Ismail each have more than 100 ODI caps, and Ismail, Suné Luus and Lee have 98, 80 and 79 appearances in T20Is. The other side of that coin is that they have enjoyed these advantages for a long time but not performed as well as consistently as they have in recent weeks. What’s changed?
“I’m not really sure what to pin it down to, but from the way we started the Pakistan series [at Kingsmead in January and February], to the way we started the India series there was a silent confidence going around in the camp,” Suné Luus told an online press conference on Wednesday. “Nobody really thought about it, but since the moment we hit the ground running in the Pakistan series, everyone never doubted their own skill and the skill of their teammates next to them. Nobody ever doubted that we wanted to win and were going to win. There was never any fear of failure. That was maybe there previously. Everybody was determined and motivated to move forward as a team.
“Maybe we were better prepared than them, having played the Pakistan series [whereas the South Africa series were India’s first since the T20 World Cup in February and March last year]. Or maybe we believed in ourselves more. I don’t really know what was the difference, but at the end of the day we just played better cricket.”
Luus is central to an example illustrating her point. Dané van Niekerk has been South Africa’s regular ODI captain since October 2016, their T20I skipper since February 2018, and a matchwinning allrounder besides. She should thus have been vital to their chances of beating Pakistan, not to mention competing in India. But Van Niekerk — and fellow stalwart Chloe Tryon, the vice-captain — have been off the field with back injuries since November. Cue Luus’ apparently seamless elevation: South Africa beat Pakistan 3-0 in the ODIs and 2-1 in the T20Is. And now the unprecedented triumph in India.
“Dané left big shoes to fill; she’s an unbelievable leader and captain,” Luus said. “But the team make it easy. They know what they want to do. I think I’m just there to say who bowls when.”
Luus’ small smile as she made her joke later broadened when she cautioned: “You mustn’t believe anything you hear about bubble life. It’s really not as exciting as you think.” We hear a lot about the trials and travails of players trying to perform at their best despite the restrictions imposed by Covid-19 lockdown regulations. Mostly, we hear it from men. Maybe reporters women don’t ask women about this as often. Or maybe women, already facing a range of obstacles in their bid to be taken seriously in cricket, simply get on with it.
“It’s a new thing for a lot of teams and a lot of the hotels we go to,” Luus said. “We were lucky enough to have a recreational room where there was table tennis, chess and darts [equipment], and some other games as well. We could come in, switch off and not think about the game. Otherwise we could focus on some studies, catching up on assignments here and there; not too much — you’re still on a cricket tour. Everybody’s very excited to go home now and breathe in some fresh air; go walk around, whether it’s in the street or in a nature reserve. Just somewhere.”
That South Africa have been a breath of fresh air for their watching supporters is undeniable, especially in a cricket culture where the performance of the other senior national team has become a corollary for the ongoing harm being done to the game by the dangerously inept upper reaches of CSA.
It isn’t often a sponsor should be mentioned in despatches like these but an exception needs to be made for Momentum, the financial services company whose name is attached to the women’s team. The company agreed to back all male one-day cricket in South Africa, down to under-13 level, in June 2012 and it became the national women’s team’s title sponsor the next year. But in September last year it announced it would not seek to renew the contract that expired in April this year because it was, a statement at the time said, “not satisfied with the current state of affairs at CSA regarding governance and other reputational issues”. But it will continue to back the women’s side until April 2023, at least. The team’s success could be seen as Momentum’s reward for holding CSA’s feet to the fire.
“As a business we have gone through tough times, and we needed someone to believe in us when we were under pressure,” Carel Bosman, the head of sponsorship, told the press conference. “We believe in this team. Regardless of what’s going on, we’re going to continue supporting them. There will be more news coming of us supporting this team.”
It helps that the players who have your company’s name on their kit are scoring runs, taking wickets, winning games and celebrating their success for all to see on television. “As a sponsor, performance is an element that almost comes as a bonus,” Bosman said. “When we got involved with the team we believed they could be the best in the world, but ultimately it’s still down to the team, the coaching staff and the management to make it happen.”
He saw a switch flick at the 2020 T20 World Cup, where South Africa went down by five runs, on Duckworth/Lewis, in a white-knuckle semi-final against Australia at the SCG. “Something changed in their minds. They suddenly realised they can be the best and they can beat any team in the world. You can’t really explain to people how close they are. To see it all happen and to be part of that process is very special, because it’s not guaranteed.”
It isn’t, and South Africa will face a challenge to retain their positive momentum — not their sponsor — because their slate of engagements for the coming months is blank.
You don’t want to waste this form. You want to bottle this feeling. Come on CSA, do the right thing. Along with the team they feel duty-bound to watch — and who will host Pakistan in white-ball series next month — give South Africans the team they want to watch.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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