Luus pioneers punchy new Proteas style

The Proteas women accept that their attacking style of play might blow up in their faces, but not persisting with it will lead to an early exit from this year's T20 World Cup. 

“We are playing a more aggressive brand and the more we practice that way, the more it becomes part of us. We accept that there’ll be two or three games where you pull it off, but you will have a game where you ‘bomb out’ — where it doesn’t go your way. That is fine, those are the odds, because it is the way we want to play,” said the team’s interim head coach, Dillon du Preez.

That blueprint was forced upon the Proteas, who for too long had adopted a conservative approach overly reliant on a handful of players producing a slice of magic to get them into winning positions.

Once the pride at reaching the last T20 World Cup final and the disappointment of its outcome had subsided, the team needed to apply a more aggressive mindset to achieve the goal they fell agonisingly short of against Australia at Newlands last year. 

“It is difficult,” Du Preez said about taking that leap. The players weren’t helped by having to endure the upheaval surrounding the coaching set-up, which ultimately saw long-time mentor Hilton Moreeng exit in May this year, thrusting Du Preez into the position on a part-time basis.

But even as they waited for the appointment of the permanent head coach in November, the players realised that the first steps towards playing more assertively required a change of mindset, combined with an improvement of skills to implement such a strategy. 

“The big thing is once the players can see the results, it becomes easier to convince them,” said Du Preez.

Some of the so-called weaker teams have shown us how dangerous they can be. The margins are so small in the T20 format - Sri Lanka murdered us at home, last season, Bangladesh gave us a good fight

—  Proteas coach, Dillon du Preez

Emphasis was placed on increasing the strike rates (average runs scored per 100 balls faced) of batters, an area where the players had struggled. 

For too long, the Proteas were too dependent on Laura Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp, with the odd innings from Chloe Tryon to supplement them. However, the recent series in Pakistan showed there is more depth. 

“Sometimes if you lose Wolvie early, that may have caused some anxiety, players wonder who will score runs, but for the first time in a long time we now have a batting line-up where we just send in the next batter to go and punish. That’s really nice for us. It gives us confidence,” said Du Preez. 

Citing former skipper Sune Luus as an example, Du Preez explained that there is greater belief in the squad. “Sune’s strike rate in the Pakistan series was 136 compared to her career number of 106.98 — that’s crazy.”

Luus’s improved confidence, along with Tryon’s power, Anneke Bosch’s intent and the innings played by young Annarie Dickerson in the last match against Pakistan, where she smashed 44 not out off 23 balls, means the Proteas have a genuine weapon in the middle-order batting unit. 

“They’re all all-rounders, so depending on how we balance the side from game to game, it’s really any coach’s dream.”

While Wolvaardt has said reaching the semifinals is the minimum the team should achieve in the UAE, Du Preez is reluctant to look beyond Friday’s opening match against 2016 champions the West Indies. 

“Some of the so-called weaker teams have shown us how dangerous they can be. The margins are so small in the T20 format — Sri Lanka murdered us at home, last season Bangladesh gave us a good fight. We know that if we are not on it from ball one, it’s going to be tough. The focus is on the West Indies now, we can’t afford to look too far ahead.”     

Bangladesh, Scotland and England round out SA’s group.