Timmy T Maranda
Momentum Proteas Captain Sune Luus said the team was excited to be crowned the ODI series champions at Lucknow in India.
“I’m extremely proud of the girls’ performance throughout the series,” said Luus.
“We came here to win but we didn’t expect to beat India 4-1 here in their fortress.”
She said playing Pakistan before going to India helped the team.
“We wanted to come to India and get a historic series win but we knew it was going to be tough. I don’t think we expected to get a 4-1 win, but it’s certainly a goal achieved,” Luus said in a CSA press conference.
The series win moves the South African women’s cricket team to number two behind Australia in the World rankings going into the World Cup next year in New Zealand.
A sublime run of form by the team saw them record 10 wins out of 11 matches despite missing key players.
Captain Dane van Niekerk and her deputy Cloe Tryon both missed the India Tour due to lower back injuries sustained in December and their return will further boost the team to be even stronger ahead of the World Cup.
“We also moved up in the ranking to second in the world and I think that’s special for our team. It’s the first time we’ve done that,” Van Niekerk said.
“We can go into the T20 series knowing our 50 over game is coming together very nicely. The combinations we wanted to try out worked and that’s a big positive.”
Picture source : @OfficialCSA
