Luus leads Proteas to victory with maiden ODI ton

Hundreds from Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp ensured smiles returned to the faces of the Proteas women, who produced a dominant display to defeat Pakistan by 127 runs in Karachi on Friday. 

Luus, the former captain, scored an unbeaten 107, her first ODI century, while Kapp scored 100 as the pair shared a stand of 183 for the fourth wicket.

Luus described her innings, in which she faced 129 balls and struck seven fours as “pretty special”. 

“I didn’t really know what to do with my celebration, though I was definitely not going to take my helmet off (and show) my ‘helmet hair’. It was awesome, and to have the first century in the subcontinent is something special.”

Her and Kapp’s efforts saw the Proteas amass a total of 292/4, which they comfortably defended after putting Pakistan under early pressure in the home team’s run chase. 

The hosts were reduced to 69/5 by the 17th over and eventually bowled out for 165, with left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba taking 3/39 and Nadine de Klerk 3/23. 

Luus, who had led the Proteas to the final of the T20 World Cup earlier this year, had asked to stand down from the captaincy ahead of the tour to Pakistan, stating she wanted to focus on her own game.

That decision seemed to pay dividends on Friday, though the 27-year-old felt she would have approached the innings the same way even if she was still in charge.

“Batting stays batting. I’m not captain when I am out there batting, you still play and bat normally. The focus is for me to just bat as long as I can and help the team.”

That she did, spending nearly three hours at the crease, and helping to restore much needed confidence for the Proteas, who’d lost the T20 series last week 3-0.

“It is massive,” said Luus.

“We came here to secure our six points for the ICC championship, we have done it in India before and there is no reason we can’t do it again.

“It could have gone either way in the T20s, but this (win) gives us momentum going into the last two ODIs.

“We have another series immediately after this (against New Zealand), so the way we finish this is the way we will start the next one,” she added. 

Much like their male counterparts, Luus felt the extended break for the women’s team meant they were always going to struggle to find their rhythm quickly.

“We haven't played cricket in seven months and have not played ODI cricket in 14 months, which is a really long time. It’s about finding our feet, finding our groove and then getting into it.”

The second ODI will be played on Monday.