Sune Luus reveals ace up Proteas Women’s sleeve in Durban

The 36-year-old men’s premier spin bowler worked as a spin bowling consultant for the ladies team at his home ground, but his role could be extended further into the five-match series. 

Luus says he played a big role in advising about the pitch and conditions there to help them take a 2-0 lead, and believes his involvement was a stroke of genius. 

"Yeah, it's been awesome to work with him. I think sometimes a coach can be repetitive and he thinks he knows everything, but coming from a number-one bowler in the world, we just absorbed everything he was saying the last couple of days," said Luus.

"It was phenomenal to have him in the camp and just his experience, obviously he's a Durban boy so he knew the conditions very well, and I think that definitely worked in our favour.

"So hopefully we can get a Joburg boy in Joburg – I don't know what Mandla's plan is, but whoever is there, they can come into the camp and just [offer] a different perspective and a different voice as well, so it was awesome to have him [Maharaj] here."

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Maharaj’s experience was also used in deciding to bowl first after they won the toss in both matches, and Luus also had high praise for their bowlers for being able to restrict the Indians to manageable totals.

"Yeah, I think our bowlers have been phenomenal in the last two games, I think they kept their plans very simple, and we know [India] are very powerful hitters and they have the capability to score 180-plus every game," she added.

"Our bowlers just kept to their strengths and we used the slower balls and conditions very well, and we just backed it up with good batting.

"I don't think we were going out and playing different shots to what we normally do, I think we just played good cricket shots and chased it down very well, but I think the bowlers are doing an extremely good job at the moment to just keep the Indian batters quiet."