Wellington, Mar 24 (IANS): South Africa skipper Sune Luus on Thursday expressed excitement and happiness over her team booking their place in the semifinals of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup. At the same time, she has called upon South Africa's top order to start making runs when it matters the most.

Rain washed out South Africa's match against the West Indies at Basin Reserve. At the time of abandonment, South Africa, pushed into batting first in a match reduced to 26 overs, were in trouble at 61/4 off 10.5 overs. But rain meant South Africa got a point and became the second side after Australia to reach the semifinals.

"Everybody's extremely excited and happy to be in the semis. With the rain today wasn't ideal sitting around and waiting. Not the best of starts but we still have to take the positives out of today, the way Mignon batted, she has been shy of runs in the competition and she needed that for her confidence," said Luus after the match.

Luus reminded that South Africa's batting returns haven't matched up to what bowlers have done for them in the tournament. "There's still a lot of batters who would be happy to get runs, Lizelle Lee at the top and our No.3 spot as well. With our bowling to keep hitting our strides and we pride ourselves on our fielding, so we would like to improve on that."

Talking further about the feeling of reaching their second consecutive semi-final stage after the 2017 edition, Luus remarked that the job is still not done yet as South Africa play India in their final league match on Sunday.

"We are pretty pumped to be getting into that final, it has been a dream for us for so long, but we still need to get through the semi-finals, needing to play England or India it will be a tough game regardless and we need to get through that. We will take it game by game, we would keep with our momentum and a win on Sunday will help with that."