Times Media
TELFORD VICE, Cape Town
COLIN Ingram’s glass is half-full. Piet Botha’s is half-empty. But the Warriors’ captain and coach will have to sup from the same cup if their team are to earn their first win in the One-day Cup against the Cobras at St George’s Park on Friday.
The Warriors went down to the Lions by 20 runs in their opening match of the campaign in Potchefstroom on Sunday. From their differing takes on that performance, you might wonder whether Botha and Ingram saw the same game.
“We identified a couple of areas (for improvement); it’s not something specific,” Botha said. “We could have bowled better at the death. We made fielding mistakes. One of the batsmen could have batted through, but we didn’t handle the pressure well at the end.
“We need a general improvement. We’ve got good structures and plans in place. It’s just about executing them.”
But for Ingram the trip to Potch was far from Sunday, bloody Sunday.
“There were a lot of good things done,” Ingram said. “In the field, we hung on well - they were off to a good start and then our bowlers really came back.
“We did well in the power play and the two spinners bowled beautifully. So we were really happy with that effort in the field.
“And then the batting; for 30 overs it went really well and we were in control of the game. We just needed to hold tight and deal with a bit of pressure near the end and that would have got us across the line.”
Contrasting though they are, both views are valid. They make the same points, only differently. Warriors fans will hope that diversity of opinion strengthens their team on Friday.
But the Warriors will have to get past a Cobras outfit who polished off the Knights for 162 in 41 overs in Kimberley on Saturday and chased down the target with seven wickets standing and 86 balls to spare.
Cobras quicks Rory Kleinveldt, Shaheen Khan and Zakhele Qwabi took nine wickets between them, and stalwart Andrew Puttick’s 89 not out proved the willow is indeed evergreen.
Similar scenarios await in Friday’s other games. The Knights will want to kickstart their campaign against the Dolphins in Bloemfontein with the Titans - who lost to the Dolphins in Centurion last Friday - keen to break their duck when they take on the Lions at the Wanderers.
Quite how the Titans were toppled after racking up 340/6 last Friday is difficult to fathom, even though that tall order target was revised to 301 from 42 overs by rain.
The Titans could find the going tough again on Friday. At Kingsmead on Wednesday, ol’ man river Neil McKenzie’s undefeated 101 and Jean Symes’ 97 not out - and their unbroken stand of 188 - rerouted the Lions from 45/3 to 233/3 in the 45 overs the innings was reduced to by rain. The Dolphins were 1/1 after one over of their reply when the weather ended the match.
The loss of players to the SA ODI squad in New Zealand will add a dimension to on Friday’s games.
Based on the XIs who have done duty so far, the Lions have bid farewell to Quinton de Kock and Aaron Phangiso, the Dolphins are without Imran Tahir and Kyle Abbott, and the Knights have lost Rilee Rossouw.
The Cobras, Warriors and Titans have not used any players who are also in the SA squad.
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