Boland Cricket Looks to Semis

Boland captain, Sunette Loubser is in good spirits despite a dose of flu and a poor batting innings against Border.

Speaking to gsport as her team prepares for clashes with Border and Eastern Province, she proudly announced that the team will be flying East London on Saturday, and Port Elizabeth on Sunday, rather than drive.

“They said we’ll be flying for our further (away) matches,” said Loubser, clearly delighted at the prospect of avoiding mind-numbing bus rides, “So we’ll be flying on Friday afternoon, and getting back Sunday night.”

“We’re definitely good, normal situation, nothing special, but we did play very badly two weeks ago, we played against ourselves,” as Loubser recalled Boland’s home match against Border two weekends ago, when her team bowled the travellers out for an under-par 118, only to crawl to a three-wicket win in the 44th over.

“It was not a big target to chase,” said Loubser. “But our batting let us down, we played against ourselves. We took too long scoring too few runs. That put us under a lot of pressure at the end, cause people had to go in and try to score runs quickly, and you’re not supposed to… It’s easy enough to score three (runs) an over.

“I think it’s lucky that (we played poorly) when we did, because we’ve only got four games left, so now’s the time. We’re quite far ahead, and we should reach the semi-finals, except if we lose anything from here. So, this is sort-of the build-up to the semis, we should play now how we want to play then.”

Though Boland will not be under pressure with a squad all fit and raring to play, Loubser indicates that changes will be rung in the starting line-up for the weekend’s matches.

“There are at least two changes that I know of,” said Loubser. “And maybe a third. We try to accommodate as many players as possible, but it’s now that we’ve got to start building up to the semi-finals, and we want to be the same team, going ahead.”

“Our coach has encouraged us to play attacking cricket, (which means) you can score a lot of runs, and then your bowlers can actually experiment more, and our bowlers have been tight,” said Loubser.

“Of course, we’ve got a lot of spinners, and women in South Africa generally struggle to play spin. That way, we try to keep the (opponent’s) run-rate down. It’s not necessary to take the wicket, but it builds pressure.”

And her personal game, particularly since Loubser’s rated second in the domestic batting averages, and 10th in the bowling department? “Ja, I’ve been struggling in the past two games though, hey,” laughs a modest captain.

“Time to pick it up again now, because I had two bad ones in a row now, but it’s fine, I’ll get up. Bowling-wise, I need to take a few more wickets. But because I’m first-change, and spin bowling, (I’ll ) use it to try to get the run-rate down again. That’s what I try to do (laughs).”