Luus to take the fight to unbeaten Australia: 'We have absolutely nothing to lose'

Proteas captain Sune Luus believes her side can break their winless streak against Australia ahead of Saturday's Women's T20 World Cup clash at St George's Park.

The Proteas face the tournament's defending champions in a crucial Group A encounter in Gqeberha. 

Australia is unbeaten in the tournament, while the Proteas are third in their group following an opening defeat to Sri Lanka.

The Proteas bounced back with an emphatic win against New Zealand on Monday in Paarl and will look to make history this weekend against Australia.

After five T20I encounters, South Africa have yet to win against Australia and will hope to change things around.

"I don't think that's a hurdle. I think it's very exciting. I think it gives us the opportunity to play cricket with freedom and to know whatever happens, we want to leave everything on the field tomorrow and to get off the field and say we've given it our all," Luus told reporters on Friday.

"We have absolutely nothing to lose tomorrow, just to play a good game of cricket and to play aggressively and to tick all our boxes." 

The last time these two sides faced off in a T20 match came in the semi-finals of the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup in Australia.

The Aussies claimed a hard-fought, five-run victory through the DLS method after persistent rain plagued the match in Sydney.

Luus insists the Proteas won't stand back and will fight hard to overcome the five-time T20 World Cup champions at St George's Park.

"I think if you look at all the previous games we've played against them, it's been close games," said Luus.

"I don't think they've ever run away with the game, which I think is giving us a lot of confidence at the moment because we have a world-class batting attack, a world-class bowling attack